Pandorax Resurface
by kokoyuki27
Summary: America messed up again and got eaten by England's spell book, traveling back in time where he met Pirate England. It was now up to Japan and Romania to bring him back to the present when they found out that England was missing. Meanwhile, America's having a hard time with Pirate England. Look on the bright side, at least it would be exciting. Pic by: A. Old Pixiv ID:4844068.
1. Don't read his book without permission

"Hey ya Japan! How is my best game supplier? " America grinned brightly and waved to Japan, who turned around and waved back politely.

"Good afternoon America san. What a coincidence to meet you here, do you happen to know where England san is?" Japan asked as America walked towards him, holding half of a hamburger in his hand.(The other half was already in his stomach)

"Huh? No, I did not see him today. Is there something you need to talk to him about?" America asked curiously.

"It is nothing actually, England san left his book at my place the last time he visited me, so I was hoping for a chance to return it to him." Japan replied as he showed America a book that was at least 3cm thick. The book had a black cover made of leather. It looked rather old.

"Japan, I may not be a bookworm, but don't all books have a title?" America pointed to the blank cover.

"It is truly a mystery. Perhaps it is a notebook of some sort?" Japan was getting interested too.

Wait, could this be the legendary book of atmosphere that America was looking for? No wonder he could not find it on Google! It has no title to search for to begin with! Geez, how can England be so selfish? He could have at least lent him (America) the book…

"Japan! I just had a great idea! Let's read it." America suggested with a wide grin.

"No thank you. It is rude to read someone's book without permission. What if this is England san's diary? We would be invading his privacy." Japan turned 45 degrees and hugged the book tightly, protecting it from a certain America.

England's diary..?

That is even better than the book of atmosphere! He can totally read it out loud during the next world meeting and embarrass England to death! That would teach him for calling him (America) 'hamburger idiot' all the time.

"Japan, come on. We definitely have to read it if it is England's diary! Don't you want to know what he wrote about you in there? Besides, we will return it to hum when we are done, he won't know anything. Just a peek won't hurt anyone~. " America lured as Japan held his stand strongly, refusing to give in.

"That is absurd! We should respect England san's-"

"I saw you when you secretly buried that bag of scones England gave you last week." America switched to threatening. Hey, who said a hero cannot play dirty once in a while?

Japan froze.

"I wonder how England would react when he knows that his hard work ended up as fertilizer." America turned around and walked off slowly, counting to 3 in his heart.

1…

2…

3…

"I understand it now. We will read this book." Japan finally gave in as America turned around with a huge grin and patted Japan's head.

"That is the spirit! Come on and open it already!" America snatched the book from Japan's hands and flipped the cover open, showing a blank and slightly yellowish page.

He flipped to the second page.

It was empty.

The third page,

It was still empty.

America was close to slamming this book to the ground and stomping it flat.

"Maybe it is just an old empty notebook? Either way, American san, let's return it to England san since it proves to have no content at all." Japan listed out the possibility.

"Let's give it one last chance before I tear it." America shot his eyes and randomly opened the book to a page somewhere in the middle.

There were only 2 words, handwritten in italics.

Shit, America and his luck…. Japan was THIS close to getting America to give up.

" '_Pa- pandorax resurface'…_?" America read it out loud, trying to make some sense out of these two simple yet unknown words.

" 'Pandorax'… Could it actually mean 'Pandora'? " Japan supported his chin with his hand and asked after some thinking.

"But it still won't make sense! Why make a woman reappear? " America scratched his head in annoyance.

"Greece san once told me about Pandora. She was not just any lady; she was the first lady to be created. Coincidentally, she was the one who brought all kinds of evil into this world." Japan explained.

"But why does England want to make evil reappear? Oh man! This is such a pain! Pandorax resurface! Pandorax resurface! Pandorax resurface! No matter how you look at it, it does not make sense!" America chanted loudly, releasing the stress his brain was under.

"A- America san! Please keep it down. England san may hear us!" Japan panicked as he watched America jumping up and down, the book was on the ground beside America's right foot.

"But it is so complicated it is squashing my brai- Eh?" America felt something tangling around his right foot and look down, Japan noticed America's reaction and looked down too.

A swirl of blue light crept out of the book and was slowing climbing upwards, slowly swirling around America.

Amusing? Yes.

Scary? Absolutely.

"Ahh! Japan! Help me get it off me!" America freaked out. His years of watching horror movies taught him that having something creep up on you was not a good thing.

"I- I will try my best. America san, please reframe from moving too much, it is very hard for me to grab it this way!" Japan got flustered, not sure of where to start.

Then, a strange gust of wind flew by, flipping the book's pages with amazing speed as a black hole formed from it. The blue light pulled the tied up America closer and closer to it.

"Japan! Hurry up!" America was close to tears. "THE HERO CANNOT DIE THIS YOUNG!"

But Japan was simply stupefied. This was something new even to him, and he was out of ideas for once.

"Japan! Admire it later!" America shouted again, his right leg was already inside the black hole.

"America san!" Japan lunged forward and grabbed America's hand, desperately trying to pull America out. But America proved to be too much for Japan and despite Japan's hard work, he was being swallowed by the black hole I n seconds.

The book closed itself after America was devoured and everything went back to how it was; no light, no wind, no America and total silence.

America was swallowed by a book…

America was swallowed by a book…

America was swallowed by a book…

…

"England san! Where are you? America just got swallowed by your book!" Japan lost his cool and shouted as he ran down the empty hallway, clutching the book in his hand.

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! New story XD<strong>

**For those expecting a season 2 of world's party instead, **

**dun worry, this is an extra. **

**you will still get season two if the reviews reach 40 by next Monday.**

**But please review this one too! Pretty please~**

**Btw, did you realize that i am a hardcore England fan yet? **


	2. Don't laugh at his costume

The room was pitch black, the only source of purple light came from a big pot filled with purple mixture resting in the centre of a magic circle on the ground, drawn in glow in the dark chalk. A doll resembling someone was hung right above the pot; its leg barely missing the surface of the bubbling mixture that was constantly giving out purple fumes.

"Hmm, where did I put the lizard's blood?" A person wearing black robe mumbled to himself as he fumbled in the box of bottles, looking for the right ingredient.

"Here we go. Just one drop should do the trick…" The person smiled in satisfaction as he tilted the small glass bottle in his hand above the pot carefully.

"England san! I need you help!" Suddenly, the door was flung opened as rays of light charged into the room, brightening every corner of it in seconds.

"Ah!" Shocked by the sudden intruder, the person's hand shook and lost grasp of the bottle. The freed bottle did a few mid-air spin before diving into the purple mixture, immediately causing an intense reaction.

"England san…?" Japan took a look at the setup and realized that he had come in at a wrong time… Blame it on America.

"Stay down!" The person dashed at Japan as he removed his robe, revealing a purple top hat and suit with a strong gothic taste.

Wait, what? Gothic? Since when did England..?

"Romania ku- Ahh!" Before Japan can express how shocked he was, he was pinned down by Romania, followed by a loud explosion that filled the room with black fumes.

"*Cough cough* Ahh… That was too close for comfort. Japan, didn't you see the "do not disturb" sign on the door?" Romania complained as he sat up and adjusted his top hat.

"*Cough cough* I apologise for the sudden intrusion and caused you all these trouble. But I have some urgent matters to discuss with England san. Speaking of which, Romania kun, why are you in England san's house?" Japan asked as he adjusted his attire, his heart still thumping due to the sudden pin down.

His common sense did not include suddenly pinning people down….

"Ah, I borrowed it for performing black magic, effective cursing is the most powerful weapon if you can master it. Besides, England has everything; I would be a fool to not use it while he is gone." Romania replied with a slight smirk and stood up to open the windows and allow the fresh air to come in.

"England san is gone?" Japan furrowed his eyebrows; this just made everything much more difficult… Japan decided to charge America twice the price for the games he was going to give America next week. That would pay for the trouble.

"Hmm? Yeah, he said something about visiting China for a culture exchange or something. He will be back in a week or so." Romania lean against England's desk and recounted the call he got from England just this morning, telling him to tend to his (England) house while he was gone.

Though England did not mention anything about giving Romania the permission to use apparatus in here… Ah well, what he did not know won't hurt him.

"I see. But I am afraid that America san may not be able to hold on for so long…" Japan looked down at the book in his hand.

"Hmm? Did anything happen to him? What is that book in your hand?" Romania's sharp senses picked up something that may just be very interesting.

It then struck Japan that hope was not all lost. Romania knew a lot about magic too right? Maybe he could help…

"Romania kun, please offer your help and save America san. He was swallowed by England san's book. It may be the work of magic and I would appreciate it if you, an expert in this would be so kind as to help me." Japan asked in a pleading tone and bowed.

"Hmm? England's book? Let me have a look." Japan managed to hook Romania's interest and told him exactly what happened as Romania examined the book, looking very impressed.

"So, Romania kun," Japan paused. "Is there any way to get America san back?"

"Have you tried calling him?" Romania suddenly asked after a brief pause.

"…Eh?"

* * *

><p>"AHHHHHH!" America screamed as he splashed into the water. He was sliding down this long black tunnel just a moment ago and before he knew it, he ended up in mid- air. Since he could not fly, he started falling down at a great speed, until he made a big splash and ended up floating on sea. His fats proved its worth today.<p>

Now he can say that to England proudly when asked to lose weight.

"Uwaa! Am I dead?" America pinched his cheek and after realizing that it hurt, yelled a yahoo to celebrate that the hero was still alive.

"But where am I? I am not going to become fish bait right? England you idiot! I hate you!" America started cursing and swearing as he floated around aimlessly.

Then, a miracle happened.

His cell phone rang.

It rang in the middle of the sea!

In water!

"Nufufufu~ now I can show off to England how useful my waterproof cell phone is!" America laughed as he pulled his phone out from his back pocket and pressed the answer number.

"Hey ya, this is America, the hero. You are?" America returned to his cheerful self.

"Romania Kun! It worked! America san actually picked up!" Japan's excited voice was heard, followed by Romania's smug laughter in the background.

"Ah~ it's you Japan!"

"America san, do you know where you are?" Japan asked.

"Hmm? I am floating in the middle of an ocean." Here came America's direct answer.

"The middle of an ocean?" Romania was heard exclaiming in the background.

"Well yeah, all I can see is wate- wait, something is coming. I think it is a ship! HEY! OVER HERE! COME SAVE ME!" America shouted as he waved his hands in the air frantically.

"America, can you see the ship's flag? We may be able to identify where you are if you can describe it to us." Romania requested.

"No problem! It has a skull and a cross made out of bones." America described in his cheerful voice.

….Well how nice, now Japan and Romania just got even more nervous.

"America san! You have to hide now! They are pirates!" Japan warned.

"Hide? I am in the middle of the ocean! Where am I supposed to hide?"

"Dive deeper into the sea, camouflage into the atmosphere, I don't know! Just hide!" Romania facepalmed as he shouted into the phone.

"No! A hero never hides from evil! Ah! The captain is comin-" America stopped.

"…" Japan and Romania waited.

"A- America san…?" Japan tested carefully.

But what they heard next was not exactly what they have hoped of.

"How dare ya bloody sea dog pollutes my sea?" A voice, too familiar to forget, sounded in the background.

"England?" America sounded like he had just saw a hippo fly.

"Hmph, so you at least know my name. I will let you live." The owner of the voice, England smirked.

Oh my god! England! Is this a costume party? Ahahaha! You look so ridiculous in that costume! Japan! You should see this for yourself!" America started laughing, ignorant to the trouble he was going to be.

"Please take a photo of him and send it to me then! I will trade a game for that photo!" Japan's eyes sparkled.

Romania felt a sweat down his forehead...

" WHY YO- Heh, we will see if you can still bloody laugh after I am done with you. Hurl him up!" England sounded like he was ready to kill.

"Hey guys! I will have to call you back later. Right now I have to go see what England is up to. See ya~!" America smiled.

He hung up.

"…"

"That fool is going to die." Romania shook his head.

"At least we now know where he might be." Japan was not that upset. Come on! You don't get to see England in pirate costumes every day!

"Not where. When."

"…Eh?"


	3. Don't tell him your real name

America followed a built man with tattoos covering every visible inch of his body to a cabin with a grand looking door. The man knocked on the door thrice and shouted, "Captain! The prisoner is here!"

"Hey! I am not a prisoner! I am the hero!" America protested as the door opened by itself, revealing a surprising neat and tidy cabin. The cabin was bigger than America thought it would be; two large bookshelves reaching the celling lean against the wall, filled with an assortment of books both in terms of thickness and colour. The titles ranged from "How to guide a ship out of a raging storm" to "Winning a girl's heart" and the books were arranged in alphabetic order. A desk stood in the middle of the cabin, facing the huge window fixed to a side of the wooden wall. The owner of the cabin had his back facing the two 'visitors', staring out the window.

"You can go back to your work now. I will handle this git myself." England ordered as the man bowed with respect before leaving the cabin, closing the door quietly behind him.

"Now then, spill it out. Who are you? Are you one of that frog's spies?" England turned around and stared at America with a serious expression.

"Ahaha! England! I must admit, you did a good job with the setting and all, but you can drop the act now." America rested his hands behind his head as went over and sat on England's desk.

"I have no idea what the bloody hell you are babbling about. But if you insist on not cooperating, I will have ya scurvy dog walk the plank." England snarled, pissed by America's attitude.

America felt a sweat roll down his forehead, England's either too childish to cut it out or was just too old to actually forget his (America) name. Well if it was the second reason, guess he had no choice but to be kind and remind this old man of his name.

"Geez, I warned you that you should lay off the cups of tea, it's soaking up your memories! Listen up! I am A-"

Before America can shout out his name, a loud bang was heard as the ship suddenly started shaking violently.

"U- Uwaa! What is going on?" America panicked, struggling to keep his balance as the ship tilted to the left.

"Captain! We are under attack!" The cabin's door was burst opened by a muscular man who was not wearing a top, clearing showing his six packs and all.

"Tch… Of all times… You, stay here." England pointed to America and ordered. Then, storming out of the cabin, he demanded the current situation.

"We are nearing the destination, but were suddenly ambushed and surrounded by…." The man explained as they got further away, out of sight and out of hearing range.

But England made one grave mistake. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, can order America around.

Why? Because the hero listens to no one, and now the very same hero was thinking of charging out and saving the day, only to be stopped by a familiar sound.

His phone rang again.

"Hey! This is America and I need to go be a hero now, I will cal-"

"America san! Please listen to me!" Japan interrupted in a serious tone.

"Oh, it's Japan again. I did not get a chance to take the photo yet." America rested on the desk and said cheerfully.

"Please make sure you get a good angl- Ah, that is not it. Listen America san, Romania kun has some important things he has to tell you. Please listen very carefully." Japan instructed as some noises was heard in the background.

"America, the current England is not the England you know. Do not let him know who you are." The time was Romania, in a dead serious tone.

"Huh? But why? He is England right?" America frowned slightly as he scratched his head.

"'Pandorax Reflection' is a spell. I don't know what it is supposed to do, but I know that you are no longer in our time frame. The very fact that England is acting like a pirate proves it." Romania explained.

"So what if this is England in the past? I am sure there is another me in this time frame too!" America protested. Why can't he tell England who he is?

"That is the problem, the you that shares the same time frame with pirate England does not exist yet." Romania's words hit America hard on the head.

"Wha- but how is that possible?" America felt as if his brain was slowing being toasted.

"That… *buzz* … You *buzz*… England *buzz*… Cease to exist." The reception was somehow being disturbed and Romania's words were lost in the buzzing sound.

"Hello? Romania? Who will cease to exist? Do you mean England? How? Hey!" America shouted into the phone, he was missing something very important, and that something may concern England's safety.

"…Beep. Beep. Beep." The line was being cut off.

Outside the window, thunder was heard as lighting slashed across the dark sky. Soon, the window was coated with a layer of water as a heavy thunderstorm visited the sea.

America stayed in the calling position, his phone still to his ears. What should he do now? What was going on? How was he going to get back? The England now… What is going to happen to him? He had to sort things out, but his mind would not work, he did not know where to start.

"The Captain is in danger! Quick! Support him!" One of the crew's shouting got to America's ears as his heart skipped a beat.

Dropping his phone, he charged out of the cabin without thinking, to the chaotic and deadly battlefield.

Nothing can happen to his England, he won't allow it.

* * *

><p>Lying on the cold wooden ground, the phone rang again.<p> 


	4. Don't just start reading his diary

Japan waited impatiently as Romania tried calling America for the 5th time. But when Romania had a light frown on his face as he looked down at the phone's screen and pressed the 'end call' button, Japan knew it did not work.

"It's no good. The signal is back, but no one is picking up at all." Romania sighed and slipped the phone back into his pocket.

"I see, that is very unfortunate. What should we do now? I am afraid that America san may be in trouble over there in that time frame." Japan spoke out his worries.

"Well we can't be sure that he is in trouble. Maybe he just misplaced his phone or something. Besides, this is America we are talking about. Even if trouble does not pick on him, he will go around looking for one. It is all just normal, isn't it?" Romania joked as he walked out of England's house, Japan following behind.

"I cannot deny that fact. However, this trouble may just harm him." Japan still could not relax.

"That is why we are going to pay Greece a visit." Romania grinned as he locked the front gates of England's house.

"Greece san? Could you be thinking that Greece san may have a counter spell to get America san back? If that is the case, it would be a great idea!" They may even be able to hide the whole incident from England!

"Nope." Romania popped Japan's hope bubble almost immediately.

"Pardon?"

"If this spell does have a counter spell, I would know. This spell is created by England, and only England would know how to counter it. The only reason we are visiting Greece is to see if he knows anything about the effects of the spell. After all, he created Pandora's story right?" Romania pointed out as he started drawing something in the air with his index finger.

"I see. Umm, Romania kun, may I know what you are doing?" Japan asked curiously as his eyes followed Romania's finger, trying hard to figure out what Romania was drawing.

"Well we are not going to walk there right?" Romania grinned, showing his vampire tooth. "Hold on tight, this may be quite scary for a first timer." Romania instructed as he gestured for Japan to cling on to his shirt.

"H- Hai, but do you mind explaining what you are going to do?" Japan did not like where this was going.

"Just watch and be amazed." Romania smiled as he started drawing circles in the air as rays of light appeared out of nowhere and started circling them, slowly wrapping them up and .

"Na-na-na-na-na-na… Nani?" Japan stuttered as he totally freaked out.

"Don't worry; it will be over in a few seconds." Romania replied calmly, as the light started to slowly fade away. First timers, always making such a big fuss over a normal transportation spell.

As the light faded, Japan noticed the change in environment; they were no longer standing in front of the huge metal gates, but in the middle of an empty field.

Not far away, Greece was sitting in the middle of a pile of cats. A cat was in his arms, staring at Japan and Romania with the same shocked expression as Greece; bulging eyes and widely opened mouth that one can fit a whole apple in.

"Ah, Greece kun! It is nice to see you again!" Japan greeted and bowed politely.

Be nice, it is the solution to everything, especially breaking the awkwardness of seeing two guys appear out of nowhere.

"Ah… Umm. Nice to see you…" Greece replied in his slow and relaxed pace.

"Yo, I see you are still crazy about cats." Romania smiled as he approached Greece and sat beside him, lifting up a brown cat and immediately started playing with it.

"They follow me wherever I go…So… I guess I will play… since I am free." Greece stroked the cat on the head lovingly.

"Greece san, we are very sorry for bothering you, but could we please ask you some questions?" Japan asked as he followed Romania's example and picked up a black cat with a ring of white fur surrounding the bottom half of its face, resembling beard.

"…Go on."

"We would like to know more about Pandora, that woman in one of your myths." Romania got straight to the point.

"Pandora was created by the gods… As the perfect woman. She…was given a box, and was told to never open it." Greece explained slowly.

"Pandora's box, right? She then opened it because she was too curious and that caused all the dark emotions to escape from it, am I right, Greece kun?" Japan asked as Greece nodded with a slight smile.

"So what exactly is in that box?" Romania asked as he held the cat's paw gently.

"Dark desires… Greed, envy, violence, evil, regrets, impulsion, betrayal… The list goes on forever." Greece counted as he sighed.

"Then what do you think of this spell? It is a spell England created based on Pandora." Romania showed Greece the book.

"…To make Pandora reappear… It is just a wild guess, but it may has something to do with memories." Greece replied after staring at the book for a few minutes.

"Memories? Why? Memories are not evil." Romania raised an eyebrow, not getting the idea.

"I… Might be able to… Give you a better answer, if you can tell me the situation." Greece asked as Japan and Romania turned to stare at each other.

Great, now they will have to tell one more person about this.

* * *

><p>"So just like that, America san ended up in another time frame." Japan explained with some hand movements.<p>

"So we are hoping to get America out of there without letting England know anything." He did not want to deal with an angry England.

"I… See… You said that… America saw the pirate version of England…?" Greece did not quite get this part.

"America got back to the time where England was about to discover the young America. If I did not read England's diary wrongly, he should be a pirate back then." Romania replied as he thought of the things he read about in England's diary that was hidden under a pile of nicely folded clothes in England's wardrobe.

Some things written inside were really… Interesting. It made him look at England with a new light.

…Japan did not want to ask how Romania managed to find England's diary.

"England san's diary? What was written inside?" Japan asked. He may not want to know how Romania got it, but he was very interested in the content.

"I don't know, I only browsed through it. I am not that free you know. Besides, some parts were sealed with super complicated magic and I did not want to wreck my brain trying to think of a counter spell." Though America's name was often mentioned in the other diary entries…

"I see. What a waste of opportunity." Japan muttered.

"Huh? You said something?" Romania gave Japan a questioning look.

"I was saying that we should get America out as soon as possible." Japan gave Romania a perfect 45 degree smile.

"…If that is the case, then… You should think about… Regrets… and Betrayal." Greece came to a conclusion after some thinking.

"Huh? But why?" Romania still could not get it.

"Ah… I see. Thank you very much Greece san, I know what to do from now. Sorry for bothering you again. I will send you a box of cat ears hairband as a gift of appreciation." Japan stood up, adjusted his clothing, bowed, and dragged the puzzled Romania away.

"Wa- wait! Japan! What did Greece mean? Where are we going?" Romania struggled to catch up.

"Romania kun, I do not like this idea, but we have to go and look for France Kun next. Please teleport us to his house, and if we are lucky enough, Spain Kun would be there as well." Japan sounded like he was determined to die.

Romania did not like where this was going.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi hi~ I hope you had as much fun as i had when i write this ^^<strong>

**Did anyone noticed that the cat Japan was playing with was actually the Japan cat in Neko!Hetalia?**

**I was grinning when i wrote about where Romania found the diary and what he saw inside. **

**(there is this huge plotbunny here, btw.)**

**And! And, does anyone has any idea what is coming up in the next chapter?**

**hint: "The big brother of love, romance, and all lovely young ladies~"**

**Review if you think i deserve a 'good job'~ thank you ^^**


	5. Don't test his ability to kick your ass

**note: i am still not very good in history facts so i am not very sure of the accuracy of the things written in this chapter. Please only read this as entertainment, not for studying the pirate era of England.**

* * *

><p>"Oui? Japan and Romania? What brings the two of you here?" France asked as he stared at the two sudden guests that showed up at his door with a surprised look on his face.<p>

Besides the fact that the two of them would always keep a safe distance from him, Japan was not one to just drop by for a visit without informing the host a day or two in advance. As for Romania, he did not really like dealing with Romania. To him, Romania was like another version of England, except that this version does not scold you with bad words or attack with scones, but go straight for the cursing and poisoning...

"I am honestly sorry for the sudden intrusion, but we have something that we need to discuss with you urgently. It has something to do with England san." Japan bowed 90 degrees and apologized sincerely before telling France the reason for the sudden visit.

"About England? let me guess, he got wasted somewhere again? Big brother might want to help, but America is usually the one dragging England back from the bar, no? Anyway, please, do come in and have a seat. I hope you don't mind though, Spain and Prussia are here too." France took a step to the side and allowed Japan and Romania into his house.

"That's even better. Do you mind giving us something to drink too?" Romania asked as he walked into the house with a slight grin on his face.

...Cancel that, this guy was probably a hundred times more of a threat than England.

"Romania kun, please remember our goal of coming here. We do not have the leisure of relaxing here." Japan reprimanded with a slightly stern tone while Romania rolled his eyes and kept quiet as France led them down the hall way to the living room of the mansion.

"Ah, yo! How are you Japan and Romania?" Spain was sitting on the sofa when he spotted the three of them walking in his direction and smiled as he greeted.

"Hey! Are you two here to drink with the awesome and great me?" Prussia raised a mug of beer and smiled.

"No thank you Prussia kun. Maybe next time though." Japan shot a look at the tempted Romania to shut him up and continued, "We are here to ask the three of you about something that happened in the past."

"Huh? I don't know why you are interested in something like this, but ask away. Do you want to know about how Roma and i met? I remembered it like it was yesterday!" Spain had that warm and fuzzy grin on his face.

"Come on man! You talk about that everyday! They would definitely rather listen to my awesome stories. Did i ever tell you about tha one when that tomboy thought that she was a real bo-"

Suddenly, a frying pan shot out of nowhere and barely missed Prussia's face by a cm or two, immediately making Prussia swallow up the last word. All countries looked in the direction in which the pan seemed to most like be coming from, but no one was there.

"Nah, Prussia, i suggest that you lay off your 'awesomeness' a bit before the next one hits your face." Spain joked as France laughed while Prussia started defending for himself.

The bad friends trio... Japan finally understood the name.

"Japan, can we hurry up? If we stay here any longer, i just may start a magic circle here and start cursing the owner of the pan." Romania took out a box of luminous chalk from his pocket.

"...Hai, i will do my best. France san, could you please calm Spain kun and Prussia kun down just for a brief moment? We would like to ask the three of you a few questions before we side track again" Japan sat down on the sofa beside the trio and in a graceful manner, forcefully pulled Romania to sit down beside him.

"Oui, ask away. big brother will try my best to help." France winked.

"Hai, we would like to know about your past interactions with England san while he was close to finding America san." Japan brought the topic up after taking a deep breath and getting mentally prepared. it will be alright, if things get out of hand, he will just get Romania to literally work his magic.

"Oh? That? Fusososo, that brings back a lot of memories. France, do you mind if i answer that for you?" Spain asked as France nodded and gave him the go signal.

"Basically, the three of us, led by the awesome me, were stopping that overly-uptight-with-thick-eyebrows guy from getting to the new world because France wanted to have the America of that time." Prussia shoved Spain aside and took over.

"Oui, and we were close to winning too. Who would know that England could be so tough when he was a pirate?" France continued with regrets in his tone as Spain nodded sympathetically. Both of them got their butts kicked by England when he was a pirate, and it was not exactly nice.

* * *

><p>The deck was in a mess. The thunderstorm was not helping at all as the wooden flooring of the deck was covered in red liquid that slowly merges with the rain water. The harsh wind made it almost impossible to stand still as the ship swerved back and forth on the rough sea. if that was not enough, people were seem brawling everywhere with swords, sticks, whatever weapons they could get their hand on and with each swishing of a knife heard, a painful yelp would no doubt he heard. Stuck in this mess, America scanned through the crowd, desperately trying to spot England as he tried to dodge the random wood planks and people that were being tossed around.<p>

"Where is England?" America grabbed the nearest crew member he could find and literally shouted in his ears as he shook the guy back and forth.

"There! The enemies have teamed up against our captain!" The poor guy who almost had a concussion thanks to America's abnormal strength pointed to the top of the ship, where England was being surrounded by three figures, who all looked extremely familiar.

letting go of the guy, America literally ran to where England was, and almost dropped his glasses when he saw who the other three figures were.

"Fr-France? What are you doing? That is England! Spain and Prussia! The two of you too!" America shouted anxiously as he charged into the circle formed by the three of them, joining the lone England in the center. He did not know what was going on, but from the vicious look on the three of them and their guns all pointing at England, it was probably nothing good.

"Ho? Hey eyebrows! Who is this idiot and how does he know the awesome me?" Prussia looked at America from top to toe, and decided that he did not know this person.

"Whoever his is is none of your concerns. I am only saying this one more time. Leave my crew alone and let me enter the new land. Then i may consider letting you sea dogs live." England gritted his teeth and gave the three, excluding America, a cold stare filled with such strong killing aura that if looks could kill, all three of them would be dead by now.

"Hmm? That is quite a big talk from a tiny person like you. England, even though your eyebrows are big, but that does not applies to your crew size. You are overpowered with the ration of 3 to 1. The chances of you winning is even more scarce than finding that kid in the new world." France mocked.

"Hey dude! Watch it! You are pu-"

"Don't be a busybody. I alone can handle them." England interrupted.

"Ya know, i won't act though if i were you." Spain laughed and pulled the trigger slightly.

"Oui, you are quite a brave one. Why don't you join us instead? Nothing good comes from sticking with him anyway." France suggested and pulled America closer to him.

"I am not-"

"BANG!"

America was cut off once again, this time by England's gun, which was still smoking due to the previous shot.

"Whatever injures you inflict on my crew, i will pay you three times the damage back. He is my prisoner. If you dare touch him, you will die here." England stressed on the last 4 words and pointed the gun on his right hand at France's head.

"Don't forget about the awesome me-"

"-click-"

Before Prussia could finish his comeback line, he already found England's gun mouth pointing at his forehead.

"Who said i can only use my right hand to fire a gun?" England smirked as the intention to kill flashed passed his cold emerald green eyes.

"Hahaha, i admit, i am surprised. But i doubt that you have a third hand." Spain laughed and again, tightened his grip on the trigger even more.

"Dude, i will reconsider if i were you. I am no pushover either." America, who was either speechless or cut off by England all these time, finally went into action and skillfully toyed with the guy that he 'borrowed' from the same guy he was shaking just now. After some showing off, he pointed the gun at Spain.

"Now, i suggest the three of you just jump down the ship like good boys before i kick you down." America grinned.

"Tch, now just because you have three guns, doesn't mean that you can go all over and ahead of yourselves, we still have our huge cre-"

"You mean those guys?" America pointed to the pile of unconscious people stacked at the side of the ship.

"De- EHH? What happened?" France exclaimed in shock.

"Do you think i would engage in a battle with you frogs, without being fully confident that i will win?" England pressed on the trigger, making it sink a little.

"Now, are you jumping down yourself? or do you want me to throw your corpses overboard later?" He grinned.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope your inner fangirl is pleased... Cos badass pirate England certainly pleased me! XD<strong>

**So sorry about the lack of action though, i am not very good in writing fighting scenes.**

**also, i got my mum nagging at me for writing this when i was supposed to be sleeping :P**

**Gah, this chapter is so long! It is almost the length of 2 chapters! So i expect reviews :D**

**Err, what else. Oh i wanna thank some awesome readers of mine who really supported me and motivated me to keep writing. I was so damn guilty when i could not update the story for so long because of my school project that i just had to finish this chapter before i go and sleep like a pig. Did not sleep for the last 2 days because of the darn project.**

**So yeah, watch out for more updates! I think i am going to work on World's party next :3**


	6. Don't fight over a child with him

"So England san managed to get to the new world after all?" Japan asked curiously.

"Oui, big brother hates to admit it, but England really had everything planned out and defeated all three of us at once!" France sighed.

"The awesome me was not defeated! I just had to let him go because he looked so desperate and determined. That eyebrows deserves some credits for trying so hard." Prussia complimented.

"What happens next?" Romania took a bite of the snack France served and asked.

"I headed home after that because Belgium was sending letters to me, saying that Romano was acting strange. In the end, he was just lonely because i was not around. How cute is that? Ahh~Boss is so happy to have Roma as my henchman!" Spain was almost sparkling.

"Kesesese, West needed my awesome help, so i headed back too." Prussia grinned proudly.

"I landed on the new world with England. We had a deal that we will have a fair competition." France flipped his head of golden hair.

Of course, both Japan and Romania knew how the competition turned out.

* * *

><p>"Ahh~ finally! land! The hero cannot be contained on a ship for too long!" America took a deep breath and stretched a bit as England followed behind, stepping onto the lands of the new world.<p>

"Hey, you did not have to help me there ya know. The situation was under control, and you were just being a busybody." England scoffed as he caught up with the hyper America.

"Ahaha! Dude! You are such a bad liar! Your expression tells me that you are totally grateful that i saved your sorry butt!" America pointed at England's face and laughed.

"Keh- WHY WOULD I EVER BE GRATEFUL?" England felt his left eye twitch.

"Besides, i am the hero! And the hero protects the people dear to them." America continued, unaware of the information he was leaking.

"People dear to them? You might want to improve on your lies. We just met, you wanker. Putting that aside, we could have avoided that battle, but you just had to drop into that part of the sea. Some nerves you have got there." England folded his arms and stared at America, who simply laughed it off.

"Now, since we are alone again, speak. Who are you? I am certain that you are not a part of that frog's crew anymore, but that does not mean i will trust you." England demanded.

"Geez, you really are a handful. Remember this, I am A-..." America replied as he suddenly thought of Romania's words. He could not let England know his real identity, not unless he want something bad to happen to England...

"Well? Spill it." England was getting impatient.

"A-..Alfred. And I am not some stupid spy, I am the hero!" Alfred complained. (i will start addressing America as Alfred. You will know why soon.)

"Hmm. I guess i can believe you. From now on, you will be a part of my crew. Got it?" England decided as Alfred nodded.

He did not like the idea of having England rule over him again, but he needs to be with England to protect him. Just for this time, he will obey England. Heroes do this kind of things, they call it going undercover as bodyguards.

After the introduction and some briefing, England and Alfred started their search for the rumored kid who was sighted at several parts of the new world. Alfred pretty much had an idea of who the kid was, and boy was he excited. England was always talking about how cute he (Alfred) was when he was young. Now would be the rare chance of seeing it for himself. As the two were walking across a grass field, something in the tall grass caught their attention. First it was just some rustling of the grass, then frantic footsteps, completed by faint gasps and noises. Both England and Alfred were stunned by the sudden appearance of the thing, but they were pretty much mentally prepared for this. Now, to catch the thing...

"Daaa! England! Why in the world are you here?" France exclaimed as he pointed to England, who was standing right in the opposite direction.

"Keh! Why the hell are you still here you wanker? You should have left with your 'friends' when you still had the chance to. But now, it's too late." England lifted his gun at France.

"Wa-Wait! England! let's talk about this!" France surrendered immediately.

"Hell, there is nothing i want to talk to a wanker about!"

"Wh-Who are you calling a wanker? Big brother is the master of romance and love!" France argued as his raised hand relaxed a little.

"Don't move!" England shouted as France immediately shot his hands straight up again.

Meanwhile, Alfred stood at a safe distance from the pair, decided that this would take a while, and sat down on the ground, happily watching the show. Be it the present or now, England and France will never change. How typical. All well, at least they make a great source of entertainment when he was bored.

"Hey, i know you are watching, come on out. I won't bite." Alfred suddenly started talking to the air in a friendly tone.

"!" A slight gasp was heard, followed by more rustling.

"If i am not wrong, you are the kid that they were talking about, right?" Alfred continued asking, despite there was no replies. After a few seconds, even the rustling stopped.

Surprised by the sudden cut in movements, Alfred turned around to see a small white figure squatting under a tree with a umbrella-like structure made out of leaves on the head, keeping absolutely still. He paused and stared at the white figure, and after the 10 seconds of awkward silence that was accompanied by England and France's quarreling in the background, spoke. " Pfft- Hahaha! He-hey! Ya know, acting like you are a mushroom is not going to fool anyone at all."

Alfred tried. He really did. But the little white figure's actions were so cute that he just could not help but laugh out loud. England was right, the young him was totally adorable.

"E-Eh... I guess it cannot work after all..."having gotten exposed, the little white figure stood up and fidgeted nervously. This guy in front of him was at least 5 times his size! What was he supposed to do now? The animals never did find him when he disguised as a mushroom during hide and seek...

Damn it, so cute!

"I am telling you, that kid America does exist, and he is m- !" England finally noticed the small white figure near Alfred.

"Har? What are you looking at- Ohh! -le gasp-" France looked in the direction of where England was looking, and immediately had the same startled look as England.

"Hi-hiii!" The young America felt the two new attention he was attracting and squealed, just one extra huge person for one day was enough, but three?

"Alfred! You found him! Good job! You are being promoted! Now get him to me!" England was elated.

"O-Oii! That is unfair you Brit! We promised to have a fair competition!" France shouted angrily.

"Alfred is my man! How is it unfair this way?" England insisted.

Alfred just smiled and turned to look at the little fella again, "Go one, you have the freedom of choice here. Choose the one person who your heart agrees with." he had no idea what he had just said. Dude, how can one's heart agree with anything when the heart is just another muscle? It is totally not scientific. But the cool and influential people in the movies are always saying that, so it was definitely right to say it in a situation like this. Besides, it made him sound wise.

The little fella, America, decided that it was safe to trust this giant in front of him and nodded. Then, walking slowly, he wearily approached the two, who looked... Much scarier.

"Heh, i will be first. Watch carefully France, and see how i defeat you easily." England took a step forward, and put up the best 'friendly' smile he could managed. Which, only looked like he was going to kill someone in the most vicious way...

"now, come my little friend. Let us open the mysterious door and explore the new path together!" England chanted as he unconsciously emitted purple aura. Face it, no kid would like a face like that as America started crying as he he trembled with fear.

"Ahhh! England! Stop! You are making me want to cry too!" France felt his hair standing up.

Alfred facepalmed. How could he forget? that face got him nightmares for a whole month straight... it he was not wrong, France should be coming in right... Now.

"Now now~ stop crying little angel. Come to brother France~ and you can have delicious french food everyday!" France lured as he showed America the different dishes, immediately turning the frown on America's face around.

Alfred got a little puzzled up till this point. From the looks of it now, it was obvious that France had won the competition and America would definitely choose the friendly France over the scary England. So... Why was he stuck with England instead...? Arrg, his memory was not exactly useful when it came to stuff like this...

On the other hand, England was totally depressed. he knew that France would use food to lure the America to him. Sad to say, even though he would never admit it, no on in their right mind would choose his food over France's food. He had just lost the competition. After all the searching and hard work, he thought he would finally be able to have someone by his side. He thought he could finally say goodbye to being alone...

America could not help but drool at the food in front of him. They looked so different from the fruits he normally eats and they smelled so good! But... That other person who almost scared the daylights out of him was now very quiet, and... Depressed. America was not sure how that other person was feeling, but from the way that person was slightly trembling, America was sure that the person was either crying, or going to cry.

Alfred got a shock when he saw his young self bowed and apologized to France, then rushed over to England, who was curled up like a ball. Did he really do that? To England? Bu-but...

"Are you alright?" America asked carefully as he gently tapped England on the shoulder.

England felt the tap and slowly looked up at America.

"Please don't cry. I will come with you, alright?" America decided as he gave England a sweet smile. England was surprised, but delighted. He dried his tears with his sleeve and gently carried the little fella in his arms, smiling warming. He could not believe how lucky he was, to be able to have such a sweet angel by his side.

Meanwhile, Alfred was speechless. The young him actually felt sorry for England? The young America actually sacrificed food for England? That is... That is absurd! The chances of that happening was as high as Italy not eating pasta for a whole month!

But... Damn it. It happened.

* * *

><p>"-le sigh- I lost the competition after all... America was so cute too... What exactly did he see in that eyebrows? I am much better than England!" France muttered as he walked into the forest. He figured that he should at least explore this place before going back home.<p>

"...Spain has his cute little South Italy, Prussia has his younger brother and now even England has America! I want someone to love too! Oh! God! Is this your ultimate punishment for a lover like me? To have no one to receive my love? How cruel!" France complained as he kicked a pebble in this way to the nearby bushes.

"Eek!"

Suddenly, a soft squeal was heard from the exact same bush, followed by some rustling.

"Hu-Huh? Eek? EHH? DID THE BUSHES JUST SPEAK? IS THIS PLACE HAUNTED?" France exclaimed as he moved away from the bushes in an amazing speed.

"I-it hurts..." The voice sounded again as a strand of curly hair poked out of the leaves and bushes.

"A-A hair?" France realized how stupid he was for thinking that the bushes had just talked and slowly inched towards the bushes. "I-is someone there? Don't be afraid of me. Big brother France is very nice~." When he was close enough, he mentally counted to three, and split the bushes apart from the middle, revealing whoever was hiding inside.

"Hi-H-hi-hello..." The small white figured stuttered as he tightened his hug on the white bear cub.

France paused, and after staring at the small figure in front of him for 5 seconds, smiled.


	7. Don't reject a bedtime story from him

**Damn, i had such a fun time writing this XD  
>Well, i also managed to sleep 2 hours later than i usually does, just to finish this. So please enjoy yourself while reading this! <strong>

* * *

><p>"So, where do we go now?" Romania asked as Japan dragged him out of France's house after the interview.<p>

"I'm afraid that I'm not sure either…" Japan had a troubled look on his face.

"Hmm… Whatever." Romania threw his hands in the air and grumbled, "I don't even know why you come to France in the first place. If you really want to help America that much, why don't we just go straight to England?"

"…if it is possible, I would like to keep this whole incident a secret from England san." Japan decided that he would rather have America get stuck in the spell for a little longer than to face a freaking mad England…

"-Sigh- You know, I will never understand your thinking. But since I am free, I will help." Romania grinned as Japan gave Romania a grateful smile in return.

"Thank you very much Romania kun, your support is much needed." Japan bowed sincerely, "I wanted to talk to France kun to confirm my thoughts on the effects of the spell."

"So what's the result?"

"France kun's statements supported my guess, but it would be a great help if we could confirm with America san…" Japan sighed, if only they could call America again, just once!

"Well, it won't hurt to try again-"

Romania's sentence was interrupted by a familiar tune, coming from Japan's phone!

"….Or, he could call us. Hurry up then, pick it up!" Romano urged as Japan fumbled in his pocket to get the phone.

"Good afternoon, this is Japan speaking." Japan held the phone close to his ear and started with a very formal greeting, as usual.

"Yo Japan! How's your situation over there?" America's loud and energetic voice boomed from the speaker as Japan immediately pulled the phone as far from his ear as possible. Last time he checked, he still wanted his ears to work.

Romania sighed, at least now they could be sure that America was still alive and in one piece. But he could not help but have the urge to cast a spell on America to torture him a bit for all the troubles he created, and then teach him how to speak using a moderate volume.

"America san, it is good to know that you are safe and sound." Japan heaved a sigh of relief, "We are currently trying to find a way to have you back here safely. But I may need help from you in order to make any progress."

"Huh? Well the hero will never turn down any requests, so ask away! I will do my best to help!" America sounded very happy for some reason.

"Japan, give me that for a moment, I have some questions to ask him." Romania said as he snatched the phone away from Japan without notice. "Alright America, let's see how good you are at stating the obvious. Where are you? Who are you with? How is the general situation there?" Romania blurted out in one breath as he motioned to Japan to get a pen and paper.

"Woa! Dude! Chill! One at a time!" America exclaimed, and after a slight pause, continued. "I am at England's house right now, so is the little me!"

"… Little me?" Romania felt his eye twitched.

"Yeah, I don't know what is going on, but this is probably one of England's movies where people travel back in time or something. I will just stay here as the main actor for a while." Over at America's side, he was in the living room while England played with the little him in the garden. Since he was finally alone, he figured he would call Japan and figure some things out. For some reason, he heard something snap at Romania's end of the line.

"Are you seriously an idiot or are you just way too caught up in your own world?" Romania could feel his blood pressure rising. How the hell could England communicate with this guy without bursting a blood vessel or something? "America, listen. You are not in a movie production. You have really travelled through time. That England and smaller you are both real." Romania took a deep breath and composed himself, before shouting at the top of his voice, "AND YOU BETTER NOT MESS ANYTHING UP OR THE PRESENT WILL BE SCREWED."

Japan could not do anything but smile helplessly; guess practicing black magic was not the only similarity between Romania and England… Maybe he should take over before Romania loses it. Yea, that would guarantee more progress.

"Romania san, please do take a break and let me handle this." Japan suggested as Romania unwilling handed Japan the phone. "Hello America kun, now that Romania san had already told you the main point, let's have an exchange of information. I will tell you our progress here, and please do tell us what happened after you first boarded England san's ship."

After that was even more talking as the two each reported on the recent happenings. Meanwhile, Romania was sulking at a corner, wondering how Japan could communicate with America, and manages to keep his cool.

"Hmm. I see. Thank you America san, the information you provided has answered many of my questions and confirmed my hypothesis. " Japan thanked through the phone.

"Ahaha! You are welcome Japan! The hero is always happy to help! …But do remind me how I have helped…?" America asked with a sheepish look on his face as he heard a thud from Japan's end of the line.

…Romania almost fell down when he heard America's response. Instead, he flipped a table.

"It is alright America san." Japan wiped a drop of sweat off his forehead with his handkerchief before continuing, "America san, may we please ask you to play along with whatever England san from that time is up to and not interfere with his interactions between the you from that time?"

"Eh? But that is so boring!" America whined, "I want to come back and play my computer games!"

"Please do wait a little longer, we will try our best to get you back here. Meanwhile, please… have fun with England san from that time?" Japan ran out of ideas, but he had to stop America from rewriting history somehow…

"Aww, fine. I guess I can make do with it for a little while." For some reason, America sounded rather excited to Japan… Maybe he thinks too much. "Ah! They are back! I will have to call you back next time. See ya Japan! Hero out!" America hung up just like that…

Japan stared at the black phone screen speechlessly while Romania sighed; the both of them were somehow overwhelmed by pities for England. How did he manage to survive living with America in the past?

"So what do we do now?" Romania finally asked, breaking the silence.

"…" Japan stared at the ground blankly as he processed his thoughts.

"Japan? Hey! Stop spacing out!" Romania waved at Japan to get his attention.

"A-Ah, I apologize for losing focus." Japan bowed, "I was doing some thinking, and I may have something figured out."

"What would that be?"

"Before I could tell you the confirmed answer, I may need you to answer some questions." Japan held England's spell book to eye level, the same book he's been holding to since he arrived at England's house. "Must there be certain qualities one must possess in order to actually work the spells in this book?"

"Well… You have to at least have some basic magic skills… Why did you ask?" Romania did not have a clue to where this was leading to.

"… America san has no knowledge of magic at all." Japan finally replied as Romania's eyes turned as big as ping pong balls.

Just how in the world… Was America able to use the spells then?

* * *

><p>"Alfwad, hug!" America ran towards Alfred with his tiny arms opened, wrapping them around Alfred's legs.<p>

"Alright!" Alfred smiled as he but America on his lap, "Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Um! England was really nice and fun to be with!" America gave Alfred a bright smile as he described the games they played.

"America, you are all dirty from playing. Alfred, do you mind giving America a bath?" England asked as he entered the living room. "I still have some unfinished business to settle." Like kicking a certain bearded frog's butt.

"Aww! Dude! Not cool! Take care of him yourself!" Alfred complained.

"You are a part of the crew, you are supposed to help the captain when in need." England rolled his eyes at Alfred, "America, be good while I am gone alright? I will be back by tomorrow to cook breakfast for you." England gave America a loving peck on the cheek before walking out of the house, leaving a happily waving America, and a madly blushing Alfred.

England just kissed him! He just freaking kissed him! Well… Ethnically, England kissed the younger him, but it was still him! … Damn it why the hell was he blushing? It was just a normal kiss from a parent to the child, no? There was absolutely nothing wrong! Even the tinier him was fine with it! But he just could not help but have the metal image of England kissing him… Ahh! This was too complicated for words!

"Alfwad, is anything wrong?" America noticed Alfred's unnatural face colour and asked worriedly, "You cheeks are redder than apples!" Placing his hands on Alfred's cheeks, America stuck his forehead to Alfred's, "Umm… You are not having a fever though…"

"Eh? Ah! I am fine! Hahaha…" Alfred quickly snapped out of it and tried to cover his lame expression with his laughs.

"Umm, really?" America tilted his head cutely.

"Ye-yeah! Let's go get you cleaned up and go to sleep! Kids need to sleep early!" Alfred exclaimed as he stood up from the sofa.

"Alright!" America smiled warmly.

"… Alfwad, I can't sleep…" America muttered after tossing and turning for 5 minutes.

"-sigh- me neither." What now? The tinier him has to get enough sleep in order to grow properly… Speaking of which, he remembered how England would tell him stories of fairies when he could not sleep in the past… Guess he could try that. After all, it worked pretty well. But as far as Alfred could recall, he was unable to remember any of those stories that England told him, at all…

"Hmm… I know! America! Let's read a book instead!" Alfred jumped out of bed and reached for his jacket on the floor nearby, fishing a new horror story collection from one of the jacket's waterproof pockets, and happily hopped back on the bed.

"Uwaa, it looks very interesting!" America gasped upon seeing the cover of the book, "But I am not good with scary things…"

"Nah! It is not scary at all!" Alfred assured, "Besides! You have me!" Alfred patted his own chest confidently as America hesitantly nodded.

"Alright then! Let's start!" With that, Alfred and America happily started reading…

"Tch, that frog escaped again…" England growled as he came to the front door of his house, still his captain uniform, "If only his fighting skills were half as good as his escaping skills." Gently closing the door behind him, England figured from the dark house that both of them were asleep.

Top toeing to his room, England took a quick shower to wash the salty sea water off his hair and changed into his comfortable home clothes. Wiping his hair with the towel, he was walking to the kitchen to get some food when be passed by America's bed room and heard some strange sounds.

"... Shouldn't they be asleep by now?" Stopping in front of the door, England pondered for a while, and decided to check if they were alright.

But, the minute his hand gripped the door knob, it turned by itself. As the door swung opened and England quickly letting go, two shadows charged at him and pushed him down on the wood flooring with a thud.

"What the bloody…" England lifted his head to look at what pounced on him and was surprised, no, stunned to see both Alfred and America on top of him, both crying…

"America! Alfred! What is wrong? Did the enemy attack?" Shocked and worried, England sat up and asked, his tone full of worries.

"England! You are finally back!" Alfred cried and out of habit, hugged England tightly, followed by America, who did the same thing, "Waaa! England! We were so scared! The monster was going to get us!" America wailed.

"… The monster?" England was totally speechless, he did not know what was weirder, the fact that a crew of his who he just met yesterday was now crying like a 5 year old while hanging onto him as if he was his mum, or the fact that both of them were freaked out, because of a so called monster.

But the answer hit him when he saw a half opened book on the bedroom floor, with its covers facing up. Horror stories huh…?

"-Sigh- Alright alright." England patted both America and Alfred on the back to try and calm them down, "I am here now. The monster won't be able to hurt the both of you now, alright?" England asked and as the wailing became quite sobbing, smiled.

"That aside, Alfred." England suddenly called, and with that, reminded Alfred of what he was doing…

Alfred immediately shot up like a spring and sat in this really awkward position with his face blushing like crazy. Oh shit, what would England think of him now? To England, he would just be a weird crew member who was probably a pervert or crazy person who hugged him out of the blues. "Y-ye captain?"

"… Just how is it that you can so scared of some ridiculous horror story?" England secretly grinned; this person's reaction just now was just too funny.

"What? I was not scared! I just-"

"You were crying like America. He is only a child, but you are-"

"I am still a teenager!" Alfred protested as America giggled.

"See, even America agrees with me." England laughed and gently pinched America's cheeks lovingly.

…Alfred blushed again.

"Either way, it is late now. The both of you should sleep." England said as he stood up with America in his arms.

"B-but the monster is still inside…" America pointed to his dark room and stuttered. Alfred was… Not looking very well either.

England sighed once again. He swear, fighting with other pirate ships were easier than this. Alfred was not exactly being helpful either. Guess he did not have that much of a choice.

"Alright, I will sleep with you tonight." England said and looked at Alfred, "Alfred, you sleep on the left, and I will sleep on the right."

"Wh-what?" SLEEPING WITH ENGLAND?

"Now that you will be between us, the monster can't get you, alright?" England asked as America finally had a satisfied smile on his face.

"Good let's sleep. I am exhausted." Ignoring Alfred's expression and upcoming complains, England dragged him by the collar and entered America's room.

When England and America were already on the bed and ready to sleep, Alfred was still struggling. He can't sleep with England! He will get a heart attack on something! He definitely will! Bu- but… The house was so big and dark and that monster just may be anywhere and…

"Alfred, hurry up, I am offing the light." England warned as Alfred jumped a little.

"Co-coming!" Deciding that he would rather sleep with England than risk getting eaten by a monster, Alfred rushed up the bed and settled beside America, his back facing England.

"England, could you tell me story?" America asked after a while of silence.

"Huh? Let me guess, you still have that horror story stuck in your head?" England was trying hard not to chuckle, but damn it the kid was so cute!

"U-um…" America nodded slowly.

"Alright. Once, in this beautiful garden, lived a house of flower fairies…" England gave in and started telling a story that actually helped with getting America to sleep.

On the other side of the bed, Alfred could not help but remember how much England' voice has comforted him so many times, since he was young, till now...

* * *

><p><strong>Please tell me i got you to go 'awww' at least once while you read this chapter.<br>I tried really really hard!  
>Sorry for the late update though, i was having writer's block, then realized that i was just low on sugar.<br>So this chapter was born after 4 cans of coke :D**

**Thanks for reading, and please stay for more~ 3 **


	8. Don't eat his cooking Just don't

Alfred stared at the plate of fish and chips in front of him and poked at the fillet with the fork. Beside him, the little him was happily munching on the food as England lovingly watched the little fellow eat, occasionally helping him wipe his mouth.

"Hey, take your time and take smaller bites." England advised and passed America a glass of water. "Do you like it?"

"Thank you!" America happily drank some water, "I like it a lot! England's cooking is really good!" He complimented the elated England.

…Alfred stared at them, then at his plate.

…Nope, a burger was still much better.

"I am still young so I don't really know much, but is this what they call delicious?" America tilted his head cutely and asked the innocent question, which made England jumped.

"O-Of course it is nice!" England almost shouted, "What are you staring at? Eat your food!" He snared when he noticed Alfred's questioning stare. Alfred grinned and went back to picking at the fillet. No way was he going to eat this thing.

With that in mind, he slipped the hard-as-hell fillet into his pocket while England was not watching and gave the little him the fries and a little wink for him to keep quiet about it. Alfred was pretty satisfied when the little he winked back at him and gave him the 'ok' hand sign. How cute, just like him.

"Oh right. Alfred, we are going to pick up someone later." England said as he washed Alfred's empty plate.

"Can I come too?" America asked with glimmering eyes.

"Why do I have to go with you?" On the other hand, Alfred was not so enthusiastic.

…Both America and Alfred turned to look at each other at the same time… Alfred was beginning to wonder what happened to him as he grew up to cause the difference in reaction between them. But then he realized that his brain could not bother to care and forgot about it. He's still the awesome hero anyway.

"Sorry America, but you are still too young to go on sea." Ignoring Alfred, England Smiled apologetically and pet America gently on the head. "Maybe when you are a little older, alright?" he asked as America nodded disappointedly. "Don't worry. I have a feeling you will like that someone when he comes."

Like that someone? Alfred thought hard and tried to identify this 'someone', but could not get an answer. But there was something more important than the identity of the 'someone'…

"Dude! Don't ignore me!" Alfred shouted, "I don't want to go with you!"

England simply stared down at Alfred with his cold green eyes, and spoke in a slow yet stern tone, "You are my crew member, what is wrong with you running some errands with me?" He covered America's ears, "I can always have you walk the plank you know. You should make some pretty good fish food." He smiled coldly at Alfred and uncovered America's ears

…Now that was a rare side of England… At least to Alfred, it was.

"Huh?" America looked up at England, who was now wearing the usual warm smile, "Why did you cover my ears?"

"On nothing, the fairies were passing by and were making too much noise." England replied.

"Fine, I got it. I will come with you." Alfred said unwillingly, bossy England is bossy.

"Good." England looked at his pocket watch, "Come on, we still have an hour before we have to go. Let's get you some clothes." He grabbed Alfred by the collar and dragged him to his room, America closely following behind them. Pulling Alfred's collar was starting to become a habit.

"What? Clothes? Why?" Alfred decided that struggling was useless and instead, argued as he let England drag him along.

"You want to go out on sea with that singlet and long pants of yours?" England paused, turned around, and raised his eyebrow at Alfred.

"They happen to fit nicely on me and I feel comfortable in them." Alfred rolled his eyes at England. "Besides, I still have my jacket." He folded his arms.

"Oh, if you are talking about the brown jacket with the big '50' at the back," England pointed to the balcony, "I washed it."

… Alfred immediately looked up and true enough, his jacket was hung on one of the laundry poles, swaying in the wind, waiting to be dried by the sun.

"Dude! Are you a pirate or housewife?" Alfred was starting to have doubts, "You cook, and wash?"

"Since my crew is so useless he can cry over a horror story," England stared down at Alfred, "I will have to do all the things myself." He grinned as Alfred's face turned red with embarrassment.

"I-I was not crying! Something got into my eyes!" He argued.

"Oh right. And I presume you hugged me not because you were so scared you needed comfort, but because you decided that I need more love?" England was giving Alfred the "admit it, you are screwed" look.

"Ye-yeah! Heroes do that kind of stuff!" Alfred was desperately trying to protect his reputation, but when the little America covered his mouth and tried hard not to giggle out loud, he knew half of the reputation was already flushed down the toilet bowl… Stupid England and his "Oh I know it all."

"Whatever. I will act that I believe you, Mr Hero." Leaving Alfred at the corridor, England grinned and walked to his closet, fumbling in the pile of neatly folded clothes and threw a set of clothes at Alfred.

"Try them on. They should fit you." Without giving Alfred any choice, England pushed Alfred into the room and shut the door close.

"…" Alfred looked between the closed door and the set of clothes before he finally decided to give in and try the clothes on. He was sort of confident that England's clothes won't fit, and was soon proven wrong with it fitted on him perfectly. But since the set of clothing came from England, just looking at it made Alfred's head spin.

"See? Isn't this much better?" England beamed when he saw Alfred walked out of the room in the clothes he gave.

"Uwaa! Alfred, you look so cool!" America was looking at Alfred with gleaming eyes.

"… Isn't this a little too… Fancy for a crew member?" Alfred felt a sweat down his forehead, "Besides, how is it that you have clothes that fit me, when we are so different in size?"

"Hmm?" England stopped his procedure of helping Alfred adjust the collar and straightened his back, "Oh, the reason why this seems fancy is because it was made for a captain, not a crew. I had this made last year, but the tailor mixed the measurements up big time. So here you go." He grinned and gave Alfred a pat on the left shoulder, "Of course, you are not wearing this without paying a price. From now on, you will be my vice-captain."

"…" Alfred was at a loss of words.

"Congratulation Alfred!" America gave Alfred a hug, "With you beside England, I will be at ease!" He gave Alfred a broad smile.

"Huh?" For once, both England and Alfred had the same look on their face.

"I heard the sea is full of horribly scary pirates and I am afraid that they may hurt England." America said innocently.

... Alfred was tempted to tell America that the fiercest most bloodthirsty pirate was actually the one talking care of him, washing his clothes and making all the rock-like meals… But that would be crushing a child's image of the person dearest to him, something a hero wouldn't do.

"Don't worry America, " England smiled warmly as he gave America a hug, "I will definitely be safe, after all, I have a little angel here at home to watch my back." He kissed America on the cheek as Alfred, who still could not get used to this after a whole week, looked in the other way.

Yes, it's been a whole 2 week since he first met England, and 1 week since he met the little him. The last time he talked to Japan and Romania was 6 days ago and he did not hear from them ever since. Sure he could call them again, but he soon found it unneeded and assumed that the two will call him when they make a breakthrough of some sort. As for now, he figured he would hang with England and the little him, just to make sure that the little him grow up to be as awesome and heroic as the him now.

Besides, living under the same roof as England was actually something he enjoys. Well… Maybe the food could be a lot better.

* * *

><p>"So who exactly are we meeting?" Alfred asked as he looked through the telescope, spotting an island not far away.<p>

"You'll know when you see him." England answered as he took out something from his pocket, "Here, now that you are my vice-captain and appointed by my angel to 'protect' me, you will need this." In his hand, was a pistol.

"I remodelled it to suit you after observing your shooting habit when those three idiots attacked. This one can fire rapidly at a fast rate and has a longer shooting range. However, it has quite a bit of recoil." He adjusted Alfred's hat, "But I'm sure that's not much of a problem for you. Use it wisely." He smiled and placed it in Alfred's hand.

"Sweet! Thanks dud- I mean, captain!" Alfred examined the gun carefully and found it simply beautiful.

"You can thank me later, the gun you have now has only one bullet." England replied in a rather flat tone.

"… Har?" One bullet? How was he supposed to try the rapid fire function is there's only one shot?

"You will have to earn the other extra load by showing me how reliable you are." England folded his arms, "From my observations, you are not exactly the most reliable person I know." In fact, probably the least reliable one. Come on, he was freaked out by a mere horror story.

Alfred was so temped to use that one shot on England right now…

"LAND AHOY!" Suddenly, a crew with an eye patch shouted as the others yelled a reply and started running back and forth to prepare for anchoring of ship. Before Alfred knew it, it was already over and England and he were already climbing down the ship, landing on yet another weird island.

"Hey England, are you sure it's alright for the two of us to explore this island alone?" Alfred looked up at the ship where all the others were, then at England again.

"It's more than enough. He hates crowd." England replied and started walking.

"If you say so." Alfred shrugged and followed England into the dense jungle, determined to get those bullets by the time they return to the ship.


	9. Don't lie to him

The two were back in Japan's house, sitting on the tatami as they pondered over what to do next. The only obvious and most effective answer they could think of was, unfortunately, the same solution they've been avoiding all this while.

It's the 3rd day since the incident and the two of them only managed to clear one of their doubts. This only brought in more questions and queries. The problem was getting so frustrating and confusing that they were even considering about leaving that dumb American in that stupid book forever.

However, no matter how confused, puzzled or absolutely frustrated they were, they had to get America out. They just had to, as friends and fellow countries.

"Urg! I give up!" Romania fell onto his back and started rolling around on the cool surface of the tatami, throwing a tantrum at that moment. He had every reason to. They tried almost everything; reading England's whole collection of spell books, researching on America's past to see if he actually knew anything about magic, and even fumbling through America's closet to look for clues.

Romania shivered at the thought of America's closet. He would never, ever go in that dreaded place again, not even if there was a monster-ghost creature chasing him and the only hope of being saved was to hide in that closet. The amount of unidentified things in that piece of furniture could probably fill a whole encyclopedia. How America could find his daily clothing from that heap of mess was an eternally unsolved mystery.

"Ro-Romania kun. Please do not give up now, we just have to try a little harder-"

"Save that for someone who's not suffering from a lack of sleep." Romania yawned and did a cat stretch on the tatami. What? He needed time to go through those old and dusty books England collected and was not given the privilege of time.

Japan himself was clear of how Romania meant and felt. He was tired from all the research too. Both of them needed a good rest in order to continue. Putting his hand to his chin, Japan stayed sitting on the mat for a moment, thinking about the confined spot they were in. As he ran the situation in his head over and over again, the two corners of his mouth pointed slightly downward. The situation now was already beyond his abilities, beyond what a mere nation with no magic background can do.

Maybe it's about time he learned from Italy, and raised a white flag?

"That's it!" Romania suddenly sat up, cutting Japan away from his endless train of thoughts. Romania then proceeded to spring upon his feet and charge out to where the phone was.

"I will call England, and end this once and for all!" his eyes sparkled at the thought.

"Eh?" Japan stood up just as immediately as Romania did. "Please reconsider your decision, Romania-kun!" He ran after Romania, but was a second too late. Romania was already holding the speaker in one hand, and dialing numbers with the other.

_Oh no! What would England-san think of me if he learns about the fact that I peeked into his book without permission? (Even though it was partly America-san's fault)I can't let this happen!_

With the motivation of keeping the secret from England and maintaining his image in England's mind, Japan leapt for the phone's wire, pulling the plug out from its socket before Romania was able to reach anyone. Japan heaved a big, big sigh of relief. Then he looked up, and met Romania's cold eyes, piercing deep into his soul.

Japan was sure he saw flames in Romania's eyes. He looked at Romania as innocently as he could, trying to get out of the mess he just made. Obviously, Romania easily stared Japan down and all Japan could do was to feel extremely small and scared, like a mouse being cornered by a large, ferocious cat.

"Say Japan, " Romania patted Japan on the shoulder with such force that Japan almost lose his balance. "What exactly are you trying to do?" Romania gave Japan a smile that clearly showed his two vampire teeth glinting in the light.

"I am very sorry Romania-kun, it would be rude of us to interrupt England-kun while he is staying at China-san's house." Japan's mind started spinning as he spun a lie suitable and good enough to save him from whatever Romania was going to throw at him.

"Oh really? So it's perfectly fine to leave me here, suffering as I wreck and kill my poor brain cells, just to save a person whom I can care less about from a damn book?" Romania hissed and tightened his grip on Japan's shoulders, nearly cutting off its blood supply.

"That is, unfortunately, unavoidable." Compared to what England may do to him if he really did found out about this, Romania was being a lot kinder.

Romania sighed, and let go of Japan. "Are you really _that_ scared of eyebrows?"

"By 'eyebrows', do you mean England-kun?" Japan fixed his sleeve and heaved a heavy sigh of relief in his heart, not wanting to show Romania how frightened he was.

"Who else?" Romania replied as he bent down and pushed the phone plug back into its socket.

"England-kun is not scary. I do not really have a reason to be scared of him, no?" Japan tilted his head to the side and smiled a child-like smile.

"Well then what's wrong with calling him?" Romania stood back up using the back of his hand. "If I didn't know better, I would think that you don't want to save America at all… Hey, what's with that shocked look on your face?" Romania noticed a sudden change in Japan's expression after he made the wild guess, "… Wait, don't tell me…"

* * *

><p>"Igg- I mean, Captain! we've been walking for like, forever! Just where exactly are we going?" Alfred whined as he blindly followed England into the dense jungle.<p>

"Will you cease your yapping? From the looks of your body size, walking for another mile or two isn't going to kill you." England stopped and turned to look at Alfred with a mocking grin, "Unless those so called 'muscles' of yours are just fats" England turned his head to face America's. "Then again, that _would_ make a lot of sense." He turned back to face the path and started walking again after flashing a sly grin to America. "Explains why you were able to stay afloat on water for so long doesn't it?" England commented without so much so as a second glance.

"What? Dude! Not cool! These are totally not fats!" America shouted and quickened his pace until he was waking side by side. "But will it hurt to tell me what we are here for?"

"Will telling you make you shut up?" England asked, annoyed.

"Nufufu~ you'll have to do better than that to get the hero to be quiet!" Alfred put his hands at the sides of his hips and did a heroic pose.

"Exactly. Why else would I want to bother telling you anything if you are just going to be stuck in your own little world?" England rolled his eyes and took a turn down a slope.

"My own world?" America followed England's moves as closely as he could. "Dude! You are like, the one who's always talking to imaginary fairies and unicorn-" He quickly covered his mouth the moment he realized his mistake. How stupid could he be? This England's different from the one at home! He mentally gave himself a slap on the face as he hoped and prayed that England did not hear that.

To Alfred's utter dismay, his loud voice was too hard to miss, especially when England was just a step away. His heart skipped a beat when England stopped dead in his tracks.

_Crap. He's not going to think that I'm some weird intruder and is going to shoot me right? Right?_

"You know" England spoke, his tone still the same as it was a few minutes ago. But to Alfred, every second felt like numbers counting down to his death. Should he run while he still can? But there's a gun at the holster pinned to his belt! It may be old and out of fashion, but it's got bullets. No matter how confident Alfred was in his speed, he was not interested in racing with a bullet. Then again, there really was nothing to be afraid about. Sure it would hurt and all, but he can't die. None of the nations can anyway.

-Click-

The sound reeled Alfred's thought back to the current situation and made him realize that he was staring at England's belt this whole time. Lifting his head up, his forehead came in contact with something cold-the tip of England's gun.

"Don't move" England ordered loudly and put his index finger to the gun's trigger, threatening the poor boy. The littlest amount of pressure and blood would stain the grass. Alfred would drop like a stone, like a fresh corpse.

"I'm done playing along with your silly little games" the British pirate hissed. "Who exactly are you, and what do you want ya bloody git?" Alfred's eye twitched at the sound of his colourful vocabulary.

"I-I told you, I am Alfre-"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR BLOODY LIES!" England roared. His voice bounced through the jungle like a ball, scaring flocks of birds resting on branches of tress nearby.

Alfred gulped. Even the sound of swallowing saliva echoed through the trees. Should he tell the truth? Will England believe him? Or was this a one way ticket to heaven?

"Alright. Since you refuse to talk" England put on a vicious grin. "I'll have no choice but to shoot you."

"W-wait-" Alfred stuttered, beads of perspiration trickled down his temples.

-BANG-

The sound echoed through the forest. Time stood still. Silence crashed in like a wave. No wind blew, as if everything in the jungle feared this pirate; this man who ruled the seven seas as if it were his very own backyard.

The tinkle of a bullet shell making contact with the soil beneath their feet was the only sound destroying the solid silence

* * *

><p><strong>Took. Me. Forever.<strong>

**Well the writing took me only 2 hours but the idea took me 3/4 of a month. I am so sorry OTL**

**Thank the awesome Dorayaki-chan for editing this before i post it. According to her, my countless mistakes gave her a freaking hard time... My bad.**

**Anyway~ hope you enjoyed this chapter. I was struggling as i wrote this though. If you noticed, England has always been a tsundere under my hands (and i am proud of that). But this time he's supposed to be badass, manly and dangerous? That's like, Romano not eating any pasta/pizza/tomatoes!(...Wait, i am going to make Roma go through that anyway.) Um.. Yeah... Bad experience, really. I ended up blasting some really loud songs while I stare blankly at my keyboard. (Hahahaha... Well that kind of made me really useless ^^"")**

**Fuu, i talk too much. Reviews give me mental strength to think faster and update faster~.**

**See ya in the next chapter! :D**

**Ps: It's settled. Zombitalia will begin soon~ **


	10. Don't mention the war to him

"So let me get this straight. We've been working our butts off for the last few days, trying to find a solution for America to come back, and now you are telling me that there's no need to hurry?" Romania asked, rather confused.

The two were in Japan's kitchen, Romania slouched in a chair beside the dining table and Japan was in front of the stove, preparing dinner. The spell book lay stationary on the oak dining table, as still as a stone. If it weren't for the fact that America's still missing, and that the book belonged to England, even Romania wouldn't believe that the book had swallow America and sent him to another time slot. From the looks of things, Romania might have to stay here for a few days before they can finally get America back from...whichever time slot he's in.

"Simply put, yes." Japan nodded as he proceed to chop some carrots on a wooden chopping board. He wanted to treat Romania to his famous japanese style curry as a small token of appreciation for his efforts.

"...Okay, I'm calling England." Romania sat up straight, a little pissed.

"If you insist on approaching England san, I won't stop you. However, it would be quite a pity." Japan replied as he moved on to the sink and started peeling the potatoes.

"Well do you mind explaining to this poor, lost and hungry soul here? I mean, why would it be a pity? If you want America to talk to England, he can jolly well come back to this time slot with England's help and while England's scolding him, they get to talk! There, problem solved! " Romania joined Japan beside the sink and started helping with the potatoes.

"Ah but it will only work if America San's talking with England when he's still a pirate."

"So England can kill him when he got pissed or something?" Romania raised an eyebrow.

... Well, Japan certainly didn't think about that possibility.

"... Romania Kun, have you heard of the disagreement between England San and America Kun?" Japan stopped peeling the potato and looked at Romania.

"Disagreement? You mean that time when America was claiming independence? "

"Hai."

"I suppose most of us should know about it, though I can hardly call a war like that a disagreement. Speaking of which, the whole event was only mentioned once in England's diary, and that entry took less than a quarter of the page." Romania recalled. "I thought he should have a lot to record about it, since it shook him really badly, but besides that one entry, there was nothing else in the book about it."

"Why, that's rather peculiar." Japan held his chin, puzzled. "Could it be that England San has somehow disposed the other entries regarding the matter? I can fully understand such an action, since that memory wasn't in the least bit pleasant for him."

"Memory..." The word caught Romania's attention. "Didn't Greece say that the spell was something about memories?" Something just hit Romania, and that something could be the solution that they've been looking for all this time.

"... America Kun's being transported to the time when England had just found the young America." Japan was starting to put two and two together.

"That section of memory was recorded in the diary as well. It ends right before the entry on the event." Romania was practically bouncing on the floor by now. "Which means..."

"The spell is catered particularly for that event!" Both of them exclaimed.

"Gosh! The answer was so obvious! What else could be the darkest memory of England's life? We should have thought of it the moment Greece told us of Pandora's box!" Romania was now furious about not realizing things earlier.

"Just a moment, if England San is so upset about this memory that he refused to write about it in his diary, why did he create a spell that literally shows the scene life? Isn't it more painful to see and feel the whole event again?"

"What if it wasn't for him to remember, but to lock up? I mean look, isn't it weird that the spell book's this thick and old, but all that's in it is this one single spell? It's as if he's trying to hide the spell away, to forget about it."

"If that's the case, then why would England San bring it out with him and carelessly leave it in my house?"

"We'll think of that later. Look, remember the whole talk about this missing chapter in his diary and this miserable entry on the event? I'm thinking that instead of writing it down in his diary and possibly crying over it every time he stumbles upon it, England kept all records of that in the spell. Once the book's being disposed, then everything's settled. All he has to do is wake up one day and forget about it. Nothing will trigger that painful memory of his, because all things related to the event would be gone with the spell and the book."

"It's almost brilliant!" Japan can't help but admire the plan. Everyone's got a dark memory that they wish to forget, but England's outdid everyone in doing that. "Should we call America Kun and inform him of it? Maybe he's figured something out too."

"That can wait. There's still the problem on how he managed to activate the spell." Stupid questions, why can't they answer themselves?

"I didn't mention it earlier, but it seems that American Kun had some knowledge on witch craft. His people used to believe in witches in the past.""He doesn't look like he believes in witches now."

"That's because anyone accused of witchcraft was killed. It was believe that after the slaughter, witches no longer exist to him, or so it seems."

"That's just bloody and unreasonable. It's not like the witches were harming anyone." Romania grunted, as a user of dark magic, he was clearer than anyone about how unfair the exercise of killing witches was.

"I have to agree. However, we all have different traditions and beliefs, it's not fair to judge anyone according to our own book." Japan sighed.

"Then let's not. We are more than busy with the problem at hand. That little bit of knowledge isn't going to be enough to activate the spell." Romania walked back to the table and picked the spell book up, flipping to the page where the spell that caused all the trouble was.

"Oh, about your fear of facing a hopping mad England, you might want to start trying to overcome it." Romania traced the words with his hand, feeling the rough texture of the paper under his fingers.

"... So you've decided to call England San after all?" Japan somehow saw this coming.

"Well it's currently no longer my choice. Since it's a spell created to lock up the memory that he dreaded so much, England's probably put in a lot of effort to make sure that no one can find the key." he tossed Japan a knowing look.

"No one but himself." Japan finished the sentence for Romania.

* * *

><p><strong>Beta-ed by Dorayaki-chan~<strong>

**I was told that i am telling so much that it's not interesting OTL**

**So as a reply to that, I am not going to write about America in the next chapter too. /nod nod**

**Well unless i can be convinced that it's still interesting. That aside, i for one was having lots of fun writing this chapter. Even I had no idea what was happening while writing the previous 10 chapters so i was wrecking my brain for a good explanation.**

**Err, credits to LittleKatreina for the whole Amerca-killed-witches information. :D Great help dear, great help.**

**Next chapter will be updated sooner. I promise. Like, in 10 days. If not I'll give you a 3000 word chapter. Yeap.**

**Reviews=inspiration and motivation. You know that, right? :D**


	11. Don't underestimate his magic

"England aru?" China stood in front of his house's opened door, both confused and surprised.

"Hai, sorry for the sudden visit, but we would wish to speak to England San regarding some urgent matters." Japan bowed apologetically as he told China his purpose of the visit.

"According to Romania Kun over here, England San told him that he will be staying in your house for the week?"

"Urgent matters? What kind? Maybe I can help aru." China asked, rather curious about this.

"The kind that involves America." Romania replied with a brief answer as China nodded with understanding.

"If that's the case, I'll pass. We did plan to have him stay over for a week and talk about tea, but he was feeling unwell on the second day and decided to leave early. Have you tried calling him?"

"We did, both his cell phone and his house, but he didn't pick up." Romania answered, looking defeated. Just when they've make up their mind on getting help, England goes missing. What else can go wrong?

"Aiyaa, Well he's got to be somewhere aru, a person don't just disappear, so you will just have to look harder. Since you are already here, do you want to come in for some tea?" China invited.

_'Sure, a person don't just disappear, he gets eaten by a book' Both Japan and Romania thought._

"Thank you very much for the invitation China Kun, but I am afraid that we still have the urgent matter to attend to. Perhaps next time?" Japan asked, sounded rather sorry for not accepting the offer.

"I see... Well, feel free to drop by for ta visit aru. I kind of miss the times when we admire the moon together." China replied with a warm smile.

"I will remember that, thank you very much, China Kun." Japan bowed again before leaving with Romania.

Alright, now what? They can go ahead and start looking for England, but if he's not feeling well, then telling him the news that America got eating by his book and was now roaming around in that super dark memory of his was probably not a good idea. The last thing Japan wanted to do was to further stress the poor Brit; Romania didn't quite mind though, he just wanted to get this thing over with.

Then again, if England gets overly stressed and pass out for a few months before doing anything to help America, it would only mean more work for him. Romania was almost certain that Japan was determined to help America out, and since he had promised to help Japan till things are solved... Dammit. Just dammit.

With that, they scratched out the idea of finding England and dragging him out of his sick bed and went on to the next plan: getting some information from America's side.

"So do we call him now?" Romania asked, already dialing America's number on his phone.

"Maybe not now, I was thinking of talking to someone who's close to America Kun in person." Japan shook his head. "Preferably someone who's clear about America Kun's past and personality. "

"... Someone like that exist?" Romania raised his eyebrow, besides England, who was obviously out of option, he really could not come up with anyone else who can do what Japan's described.

* * *

><p>"Please, come on in. It's really rare of me to have any visitors except for Brother, England and France at times." Canada gestured for them to enter his house with a wide smile on his face, his bear was sitting beside him.<p>

"Who are they?" The bear, Kumajurou asked as he pointed to Japan and Romania, then at Canada. "Who are you?"

"I'm Canada..." Canada's smile was turning into a troubled one, "They are Japan and Romania, our guests. Now be a good bear and fetch us some tea, will you?"

"... I'll have extra maple syrup on my pancakes tonight." With that, Kumajirou turned away and walked into the kitchen, followed by the sound of glass banging together.

"... Thank you." Canada felt a sweat down his forehead.

"Sorry for the trouble, Canada Kun." Japan bowed slightly after they've entered the house. "It's really alright if you would save the work, we are just here to have a little chat with you and ask you some questions if possible."

"Oh, it's really fine. Please, have a seat." Canada simply nodded as they sat on the sofas. Japan and Romania sat on one while Canada sat on the other. The two sofas were facing each other and between them was a small coffee table. Just a moment after they've settled down, Kumajirou came up with a two plates of tea and some cookies as he placed them on the table and helped himself to one of the cookies.

"Hey um..." Romania looked on the floor, trying hard to remember the name of the person in front of him. "Canada! Yes, Canada. What do you think of your brother?"

"Huh? My brother?" Canada looked at Romania, rather clueless. But that only lasted for perhaps a mere second or two before he opened his mouth again to answer the question.

"He's really outspoken, has a sense of justice, can't read the atmosphere and is always ignoring me. But he's nonetheless a caring brother." He paused and met Romania and Japan's eye contact. "Did he get himself into trouble again?"

"Wow, you are not excellent in archery for nothing. Bull's eye." Romania whistled as Japan took a sip of the tea.

"-sigh- What did he do this time?" Canada was acting more like an older brother carrying the blame for his younger brother than who he's supposed to be; the younger brother who's always being protected.

"You sound like you're really used to this." Romania had to admit that he was a little caught off guard by Canada's reaction. He was expecting Canada to not make a huge fuss about it, but at least look troubled or worried.

"Well... Brother's always getting intro trouble and I'm somehow taking the blame every time. Guess that I'm used to it even without noticing." Canada simply shrugged. There's really nothing much he can do in making sure that his brother stays out of trouble. Come on, he's America for crying out loud.

"I feel sorry for you, Canada Kun. Please hang in there and let's hope that America Kun would learn his lesson and hopefully stays out of trouble for a while after he's safe from this one." Japan sincerely hoped.

"Thank you. That would be wonderful, don't you think so too, Kumameiji san?" Canada asked the bear sitting beside him.

"Who are you?"

"... Canada."

"Well, at least we don't have to waste our time trying to assure you that he'll be fine and you don't have to worry." Romania finished up another cookie and said, "So let's cut straight to the point."

"Your brother got swallowed by a book." He said with a rather calm expression.

"... Excuse me?" Canada could have swore that the chances of that happening was lower than his brother being abducted by aliens. Well on second thought the chances of that happening was lower than the chances of his brother actually picking a book up and reading it.

"England San is very closely involved in it." Japan explained after reading Canada's expression.

"I see. If it's England, then it makes a lot more sense." Canada smiled as he scratched the back of his head. "So what do you want me to do? Whatever it is, as long as brother can come back, I'll cooperate 100%."

"Thank you very much for your help. 'I'm sure America Kun will be saved soon.' ...Is what i would like to say. However..."

"We are kinda hoping that you'll tell us what to do." Romania put it in a simpler way.

"...I'm sorry, I don't quite get it."

Romania and Japan glanced at each other and then at Canada for a few times before they nodded to each other and with a few more servings of the snacks (mostly the cookies, Romania found it rather nice), told Canada everything. Japan had a bad feeling that if this goes on, it'll only be a matter of time before they had to tell everyone else about this.

"What is the pressing problem now then?" Canada asked as he hugged Kumajirou, who moved to sit on his lap.

"We have no idea where England is and he's a must have if we want to free America. Well, at least for now he's a must have. There's also the problem that America used England's magic. That's something i don't understand."

"Is there something peculiar about that? He just used it right? Do you have to know something about magic to use any?" Canada tilted his head slightly.

"Unfortunately, you do." Japan replied as Canada realized how weird the situation was.

"So you see, we need to know how he managed to work the spell. Well we know he's an idiot and idiots have a thing with luck but... The point is, if we can figure that out, i may be able to come up with another way to get America out of there." Romania analysed.

After that was another moment of silence as everyone were deep in their thoughts. Kumajirou was probably thinking about what to have for dessert later, but the others were mainly thinking of the problems at hand.

Just as Canada was about to give up thinking about something that he could hardly understand, he looked up at the wall clock as an idea hit him. Now to confirm that idea...

"Romania, I'm not very sure about it but is there such things as magic or enchanted items? Any sort of it that can contain magic?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. In fact, it's not hard to make one of those things. For example, a healing pendant. All you have to do is to trap a whole lot of healing spells and magic into a single pendant. Takes a whole lot of time and energy so i don't really go about making them. What makes you ask about that?"

"Must the user of the magic item know any magic him or herself?" this time was Japan.

"Don't have to. I can just toss Canada the pendant- if i have any, and he'll be able to use its healing powers at his own will- Wait, you are not saying that.."

"England San is extremely strong in magic." Japan muttered.

"He's definitely capable of making something like that..." Romania continued as both Japan and he looked back at Canada.

"England gave brother a watch a few years ago for his birthday. He's always wearing it, even in his sleep." Canada concluded, a glint of spark was caught in his eyes.

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><p><strong>THERE! THE CHAPTER BEFORE I GO ON A SMALL HIATUS! ~~<strong>

**Okay I'm cruel on not making America appear. i am so sorry. But look at the bright side, the next chapter (which i honestly have no idea when i'll type it out) will be all about America and Pirate England! :D (gosh time for more rock music and badass Iggy)**

**REVIEW! If i get like.. 65 reviews in total, I'll resume writing a month earlier than the original time. (Doing this because i am somehow confident that it won't happen.) Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :D See you next time~**


	12. Don't start a fight with his lion

_I'm back! As an apology for being gone, here's quite a long chapter update! :D But first, let's have a recap of the story so far:_

_-America got eaten by England's book and ended up in the past._

_-Japan and Romania were cracking their heads to save America._

_-With the help of Greece, the BTT and Canada, the two figured out the purpose of the spell and that the only way to counter it was to get England, who was currently missing in action._

_-Meanwhile, America was being dragged by Pirate Iggy to an island and was given a gun with one bullet._

_-America accidentally said the wrong thing and got Pirate Iggy annoyed._

_-Pirate Iggy pointed his gun at America and shot._

_That's about it actually. :D Let's get to the story shall we? As promised, I'm finally writing about America and Pirate Iggy again! So enjoy~ :3_

* * *

><p>"That almost scared the light out of me! Can't you do it in a more normal way?!" Alfred complained as England put his gun back in its holster.<p>

"Oh, so you would rather get shot by that spy there?" England gave Alfred a sarcastic look and conveniently knocked the spy's head with his fist while still staring at Alfred

The Spy, a man sitting on the ground dressed up as one of England's crew, muffled an 'ouch' and kept quiet again, staring at the ground and obviously scared of the two standing in front of him. He was not supposed to be caught; he was not supposed to be spotted. He would be killed.

"Besides, if you have nothing to hide, there's nothing to be scared of." He shot Alfred a look that got him looking away in guilt.

He had every reason in the world to be scared alright. Who wouldn't be when a gun was pointed right at him? It's not a matter of hiding anything or not, though he was hiding just a few details. But who honestly cared about details?

"Now," England folded his arms and spun on his heel to stare at the poor guy, who was terrified inside out. "To deal with you. I'm going to give you a choice. You can either pledge your loyalty to me and serve me from now on, or go back to that frog and tell him to come at me himself." England said carefully.

Both Alfred and the spy's eyes widened.

"Are you serious? He tried to shoot me down!" Alfred was almost shouting.

"He was just following orders. I saved you, didn't I?" England pointed to a stray gun lying a few meters away; the gun that he had shot away from the spy's trembling hand.

"But-But.." The whole idea of accepting someone who just tried to kill you was still unacceptable to Alfred. He took a closer look at the spy; he had a black bandana tied on his head, three piercing on each of his ears and was wearing a normal black and white striped shirt. The uniform was accompanied with a pair of brown and slightly puffed out pants and boots that reached mid-calf. The spy had an expression of disbelief on his face with huge eyes and a mouth open, gaping like a fish.

Alfred had suggested that they tie the spy up after England had captured him and the weapon safely out of his hand, but England insisted that it was unnecessary and went straight to interrogating him without taking any safety precautions whatsoever.

Alfred found himself wondering how England had changed from this reckless and over confident pirate to the uptight 'gentleman' he knew now, who was also a constant worry wot.

"So, what's your choice?" England asked, looking serious.

"I-I'll stay. You could have killed me with that shot, but you chose not to. My life is now yours, Captain." The spy stood up and bowed a full ninety degrees as he announced his decision with determination.

"Very well then, welcome to the crew. Just note that I'll not hesitate to shoot you myself if you go back on your words. I hate liars. Now go and board the ship with the others." England ordered with a slight smile as the spy quickly nodded and ran off to the ship at lightning speed.

Alfred now understood how this fearsome pirate's crew could be so powerful and feared a mile away. They knew that they have a captain that they can count on.

"Look dud- I mean, captain, I can see that you are sort of a great person who gives people a second chance for this and that. But let's agree on it that you should never point that thing at me again. " Alfred suggested with a serious face.

"We'll see. Until you've earned your bullets, nothing is confirmed." England replied as Alfred sighed; pleasing this guy was not as easy as he thought it would be.

Ah but he's way to awesome/stubborn to stop there; he's America after all.

"… Just you watch, I'm getting those bullets no matter what!" Alfred pumped his fist in the air.

"Sheer chit chat and no action's going to get you no where. Come on, we are reaching the destination soon." England waved for Alfred to follow as he walked deeper into the forest.

Alfred groaned in annoyance of being ignored and even more so when more walking was inevitable, but he refused to give up now. After all, in order to protect him, he's got to be close by his side. It's not like he cared though, but his little self wanted him to protect England, and it would be a terrible thing to do if he were to disappoint such a cute and innocent child.

The duo walked for around ten more minutes before Alfred noticed something moving in the bushes around them, he was immediately alert and scanned his surroundings, trying to spot that something, though in vain.

"Eng- Captain, did you hear or see anything?" Alfred called out to England, who was quite a few feet ahead of Alfred.

"Hmm?" England stopped and turned around to face Alfred, "Oh, We are nearing his den now, so it's probably just him in the bushes."

"…Den? Dude, who exactly is this _he_?" America asked, but his question was answered when he heard a loud roar, followed by a huge shadow that leaped straight at him from the bushes nearby.

"De- Gahhh!" Alfred let out a scream, caught unprepared and all. He turned to England for help at the last second before the shadow landed on him and pushed him to the ground, but was shocked to find England just standing there with a slight grin and no intention of helping at all.

Damn you England, just damn you.

Alfred turned back to look at the thing that pounced on him, his mind full of ideas to get away from it. The first thing to catch his attention was fur beneath his fingertips. The second thing was that it had a mane, a golden, majestic mane. Crap, he was being attacked by a freaking lion.

The lion roared when it sensed that Alfred was looking at him and raised his front paw, aimed at his face and brought it down hard. Alfred took no time at all and used both hands to push the paw away from him. Considering that he was able to throw a bison around when he was just a child, this was a piece of cake. But getting the lion off of him, that's a completely different case.

"England! Don't just stand there! Do something! Your vice-captain is being attacked here!" Alfred shouted as he continued to wrestle with the lion, which seemed to be determined to make lunch out of him.

"Say Alfred, I've been thinking-"

"Dude! Is this really the time to do that?!" Alfred interrupted, the lion was now trying to bite his hand off, and the two of them were just rolling about, battling out.

"Since you are my vice-captain, you should at least be able to fend off a lion. They don't have guns."

"What kind of criteria is that?! Besides, you made me your stupid vice-captain! I'm fine without that title, so come here and help already!" Alfred managed to sit on top of the lion for a few seconds and cried out in victory!...before the lion struggled to shake him off and pounced on him again.

Alfred swore, the lion was even harder to deal with than one of Spain's bulls.

"Hmm? What happened to proving your worth and getting those bullets? Giving up already are we?" England folded his arms, smirking as he watched the two and enjoying the show.

"Why you- Fine! What did I expect from someone who can't even make an edible meal?" Alfred jeered as he jumped to the side in an attempt to duck from the lion's paws. He managed to create a bit of distance between them and was doing all he could to keep to it.

"I don't want to hear that from someone who's scared of those childish horror stories." England rolled his eyes, walked up to a rock and sat on it; this might take a while.

"I wasn't scared!" Alfred turned to glare at England as he shouted. "Don't try and change the subject here, captain eyebrows!"

"Hmm? You said something?" England smiled with malice as he reached for his pistol.

"I said, you have thick eyebrows!" Alfred refused to back down, no one challenges the hero! "On that note, why isn't it attacking you?!" he complained as the lion launched another attack at him.

"I don't know, maybe he preferred a high fat diet."

"I'm not fat!"

"Right, care to explain why you managed to float on water for so long again?" England raised an eyebrow.

"Will you just help me already?!"

"Hmm… It _is_ getting boring." England thought for a moment and nodded to himself as he muttered, "Besta, he's a friend. Come here boy." He called and waved at the lion, who was trying to fit Alfred's head into its mouth.

The lion, upon hearing England, stopped its attacks and _bounced_ to England, stopping at his feet. It then did something that got Alfred dumbfounded and speechless. It rubbed its head against England's arm, motioning for England to pet him.

What the heck… SO EVEN LIONS WERE ATTRACTED TO HIM NOW?!

"... Care to explain why that thing is acting like a kitten towards you when a minute ago it was trying to bite my head off?" Alfred asked, approaching England with a pissed face. The lion immediately turned around and growled at him, causing him to take a step back.

Why was everything going against him?! He almost got shot by his own captain, then by a spy, and now even a lion's not happy with him? Today's just not his day…

"The lion has a name. He's called Besta." England introduced as he moved on to petting the lion. Alfred could have sworn that he heard the lion purr.

"…Don't tell me that we are here for him." Alfred didn't remember playing with a lion when he was young.

…Then again, his memory was… not exactly the best.

"As a matter of fact- Hmm? Besta, is anything wrong?" England asked, realizing that the lion was pulling at his long coat.

The lion let go of his coat and let out a low growl. Alfred noticed England's relaxed look tensed up as he shot up from the rock.

"What's wrong?" he figured that England's managed to get something out of the growl and decided to not even think about how he did it.

"Looks like this island's got some uninvited guests." England adjusted his hat and smoothed the creases on his coat. "Come on Alfred, we have some extermination to do."

Alfred sighed. Seriously, can't things here ever go well and smooth for once?

"I'm game." Whatever, what else could be harder to handle than a freaking violent and unreasonable pirate with thick eyebrows and horrible cooking?

* * *

><p><em>Thank you for reading!<br>Okay first credit to Dorayaki chan who took the pain of beta-ing my work. It appears that my English has gotten bad and she got a hard time trying to make things sound right.  
>Next, my two friends who read this story despite being non-Hetalians. They were a great help too.<br>Finally, to you who's gonna be nice and review so that I'll cough up the next chapter faster :D_

_For those people who got confused about the Current England, he was feeling unwell and left China's house. It was mentioned that Romania actually called England's cell and house phone, but no one picked up. So yeah, he is sort of missing. /Nod nod/ _

_As for the chapter you've just read, if you are still lost, Pirate Iggy wasn't even thinking of shooting Alfred. He noticed the spy hiding far away behind Alfred, ready to shoot him. So he took Alfred as an excuse to shoot the spy. Get it? Get it? :D Now be happy that I didn't kill America and like, totally review :3  
><em>

_/shall be thick skinned and ask for reviews like it's the end of the world~ _


	13. Don't leave him behind

"Hey England, tell me again why we are following a lion into its den." Alfred asked as he followed the man and the beast in front of him, constantly looking around.

They were inside a rocky cave, walking down a rather wide path, deeper into the den. Alfred had imagined places like this to be filled with old and long dried up bloodstains and maybe a pile of animal bones or two. But it was rather spacious and clean inside, a little too clean.

"This place looks like it's been vacuumed clean! England, is your lion against dirt or is he like Ger-" America managed to shut his mouth on time. Since Prussia was still active in this time slot, then England probably didn't know about Germany. Better keep quiet then, wouldn't want to almost lose his life again.

"Hmm? You were saying?" England didn't bother to turn back or stop to listen to Alfred.

"Oh, I'm just wondering if your lion there doesn't like germs." Alfred quickly changed his words and grinned widely, despite knowing that England probably won't see his facial expression. Right after he had finished saying that, Besta had stopped to turn around and give him a low growl before moving again.

Okay, so the lion did not like him. Alfred got the message.

"None of that sort, this used to be Besta's den, but he had abandoned it a long time ago. You might want to start calling Besta by his name. From the looks of it, he doesn't quite like you, Alfred." England advised as he turned around to give Alfred a quick grin.

"The feeling's mutual, I don't like your beastly friend either, dude." Alfred simply stared back.

"Hmm. Guess you are generally bad with animals." England shrugged, "but this place _is_ a little too clean. It's as if someone had deliberately cleaned it up."

"Someone? I don't think anyone else would be crazy enough to come in here-" before America was able to finish his sentence, he had walked into England, knocking his nose against England's stiff pirate hat.

"Ouch! Don't just stop walking half way! Dude if this is how you drive a ship, I'm surprised that you haven't wrecked your ship yet." Rubbing his nose, Alfred complained as he walked to England's side. "So, what are we stopping for?"

"Just look at the ground will you." England shot Alfred a look that probably meant something along the line of 'Are you blind or just slow?' and pointed to the ground.

There were footprints.

"That's weird, why would there be footprints here..." Alfred looked up from the foot prints and shot Besta an accusing look, "Besta, you don't eat people, do you?"

Besta growled again, obviously louder and more pissed this time.

Alfred hissed back, not wanting to lose to the lion.

"You know, if this goes on, you might be the first person he's ever eaten." England shook his head in dismay. He had decided that the next time he came across someone floating in the water, he'll just ignore it and move on.

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><p>After discovering the footprints, the two started moving more carefully and quietly, aware that someone else besides themselves may (and probably had) still be in the cave, watching their every move. Besta, too was getting more alert and careful as they ventured deeper into the cave.<p>

The cave got darker with each step they took, but there was still a faint source of light coming from deeper within the it, just enough for Alfred and England to watch their steps and not walk into each other again.

After taking a few more turns, the three had finally reached the heart of the cave. Alfred and England's eyes widened as they stepped into the space, unable to believe what they were seeing. The place was a lot more spacious than the paths and somewhat resembled a hall. It had a very tall and rounded roof that curved outwards and at the very center of the roof was a hole. The light that was guiding them had come from the sunlight that had entered from the hole.

But that was not all that surprised them.

Half of the space was filled with cages all stacked up on top of each other, and in the cages, were many animal cubs.

"Holy crap." Alfred finally managed the two words out of him, breaking the tense silence.

"Is half of the island's animals all here?" Alfred exclaimed as he ran towards the cage for a closer look. They were all sorts of baby animals: monkeys, foxes, bears, deer and even lion cubs.

The animals, upon Alfred's arrival, started becoming restless and noisy; the monkeys even jumping up and down in its cages.

"Shush, come on guys, I'll get all of you out in a jiffy." Alfred put a finger to his lips as he yanked at one of the locks with his free hand.

"... Since when did this happen?" England asked, a cold glint shined in his irises. Whoever did this would be punished severely. Not in his book at least.

Besta lifted his head and turned to look to the left corner of the cave, causing England to follow his gaze. At the corner was a table and a chair. Some pieces of paper were scattered on the table, digging tools were leaning against the table and chair legs and some nets were placed beside the wall.

Walking up towards the table, England picked the pieces of paper up and scanned through them, his face looking graver every second. Finally, he crushed the paper in his hand and threw it behind him.

"Animal trafficking. That's something so low even we pirates would never do. Those jerks sure have guts." England smiled in a dangerous way as he thought of the different kind of treatments he'll give to the people behind this.

But first.

"Alfred, what's taking you so long? Hurry up and release them." England ordered, his voice cold as steel.

"I can't find the keys!" Alfred reported as England came beside him.

"Who said anything about keys?" England smirked and while Alfred was still puzzled by his word, took a step back and did a quick turn on the spot, placing his weight on his left leg. Using the momentum of the turn, England raised his right leg and with one clean swipe, kicked the lock to the ground, leaving it broken and the cage door unlocked.

Alfred was speechless.

Okay he knew that England's probably strongest and most dangerous during his pirate age. But that was... that was just ... Not something he thought England would do.

"Don't just bloody stand there. Help." England ordered as he kicked another lock open, releasing a cage of bear cubs.

"O-oh! Right." Alfred didn't quite know how. But orders were order right?

Running to the chair, he picked up a shovel and gave it a few test swings. Then he ran back to the cages and with a clean hit, knocked open a cage full of deer. His days of playing hockey with Canada finally paid off.

While the two were busy breaking locks, Besta stood guard, constantly walking about and sniffing the air. He had heard some footsteps and sniffed something. Something that's not good.

Besta growled just loudly enough for England to hear him.

"Shit. Of all times." England turned around to look at the entrances, then at Besta.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Alfred asked, carrying the little rabbits out of the cage that was stacked on top of another two cages.

"Uninvited vermin, that's all. We hide for now." England instructed as he picked a few confused animals off the ground and cradled them. Alfred did them same.

Besta's growling became louder.

"What about the cages?" Those empty cages were bound to give them away.

England glanced around and spotted a pile of rocks at the other end of the place, they could hide behind that thing.

"Drag them behind the rock pile there. I'll handle the animals. Besta, try getting them to keep quiet." England pointed at the overly excited monkeys in the cages that were still locked.

Besta nodded and gave the monkeys a threatening roar that was just enough to deliver the message and get them to shut up. Meanwhile, Alfred was dragging the last cage over to the hiding spot.

"You want to put them back in the cages first? You can't just hold them all." Alfred suggested, picking some bear cubs up.

"I'd rather not. Besta, tell them to stay behind the rocks and don't come out. How much time do we have left?" England ordered as he gently dropped a few foxes.

Besta stomped his front paw once and let out a long low growl.

The animals behind the rocks stayed still and quiet, so did Besta.

"Huh? Wait, so how long is-"

England grabbed Alfred by the collar and yanked him to the back of the rocks, then waved at Besta for him to join them.

The moment Besta joined them behind the pile of rocks, they heard talking.

"Did you hear anything just now?" A low and rough voice asked.

"There's god knows how many animals in there. I'd be surprised if they are actually quiet." A younger and sharp sounding voice replied.

England gave Besta a nod, who then turned to stare at the animals still in the cage. Within seconds, the animals in the cage started their usual jumping and squeaking.

"Whoa dude, that's neat! You can speak to animals?" Alfred exclaimed in a very low voice.

"Only with Besta and some others. But that's not the point. Let's try to find a way to get out." England replied as the two started looking around.

"I can't wait for the ship to come." The low voice remarked. "After this round, we'll be filthy rich!"

"Yeah, can you imagine the amount of money people are willing to spend to own a leopard? It's unbelievable! Too bad we only got some wolf cubs last time." The other voice replied.

Bastards, this wasn't their first? Alfred clenched his fist. it was then he noticed that England wasn't looking any happier. The guy's got his hand on a gun and his eyebrows knitted together, showing hatred and disgust as he observed the two men from the gaps between the rocks.

Hmm, no matter the time slot, England will always be an animal lover huh?

While Alfred was still thinking about things, he felt something pulling him. Looking down, he found a small rabbit nibbling and pulling at his sleeve. The rabbit realized that it's gotten his attention and let go, it then hopped away, leading Alfred's attention with him. It was then when he saw it. A hidden tunnel found just a few steps away.

"Hey, England, we found a way out." Alfred whispered as he pointed to the tunnel. It was quite near from the pile, but to get there, they would be fully exposed for a few seconds. It was a risky game.

"... Grab the animals and start going." England instructed as he started loading Alfred with the cubs. "Stay low and quiet, drop the little fellas there and come back for seconds. "

Alfred nodded, already cradling a bunch of rabbits and a deer in his arms. He sneaked to the other side. It was a smooth trip, and he soon managed to get across. After making sure that he was out of sight, Alfred gently placed the animals down on the ground and told them to wait quietly.

Will they understand? Beats him. He's not some weird pirate who can understand an even weirder lion.

When Alfred came back for a second round though, things started to get dangerous. Around three more men joined the other two, and they had guns with them. Alfred was willing to bet his last bullet that those guns probably had more than one bullet in them. Stupid England, if only he had given him the bullets earlier. This could have been so much easier.

England had once again loaded Alfred with the last few of the rescued animals and was waiting for the right chance to let Alfred run for it. But while England was still busy observing the people, Alfred noticed something very very bad.

One of the rabbits he had rescued, had hopped out of the tunnel and into the open, where the men could have easily spotted it. That's not the worse part. The messy part would come when one of the men would actually come and pick it up. The rabbit was right beside their hiding point.

In other words, that one little rabbit, could give their hiding spot away. (Not that it was very secretive in the first place)

"Iggy, we have a problem." Alfred whispered, but was cut off by England, who was too annoyed to be disrupted.

Alfred sighed and shook his head. Looks like it was all up to him again.

Approaching the corners of the rock pile, Alfred reached out to grab the little rabbit. Sadly, the little bunny always outsmarted Alfred by hopping an inch away each time Alfred tried to catch it. Going back behind the rocks, Alfred took a deep breath and stretched out his hand again. This time, he was almost touching the little thing's fur when he lost his balance and _almost _fell forward. He managed to keep his balance at the last minute, but his leg had managed to kick a cage at the back, causing quite a ding.

"What was that?!" A man shouted, swinging round and looking right in their direction.

England glared at Alfred, who smiled sheepishly and gulped at the same time.

Shaking his head, England nodded to Besta, who rubbed its face against England's before joining Alfred's side. "I'm going to shoot. You go with Besta, he'll lead you out of here." England instructed, still keeping his voice low.

"What about you?"

"I have my guns, and I probably won't mess things up. So hurry up and go. In three."

"England."

"2."

"Promise me you'll come right behind."

"... Of course. I'm a bloody pirate." England grinned. Alfred grinned back.

"1."

The two sprang into action.

England shot up and fired a shot from each of his pistols, taking two of them out in an instant. Alfred took control the confusion and leapt for the tunnel, Besta covering for him.

"Hurry! Get more people!" Voices sounded from the entrance as foot steps were heard.

"England!" Alfred stopped half way and turned around, worried.

"Don't stop ya soddy git! I'll be fine." England practically shouted, firing another round and dodging to the right, just missing a close shot.

"But-"

"This is an order from your captain!"England growled.

"Damn. Just- Make sure you make it!" Alfred shouted before running again, safely dodging some bullets and making it to the tunnel.

By the time that's done, the reinforcements had arrived. England took a brief glance. Around twenty. Great, this should be fun.

"They're down the tunnel!" A man shouted as he pointed to the tunnel opening, immediately getting a group of 5 men running for the tunnel, each holding a weapon in hand.

But they did not manage to get as far as to even step into the tunnel. England was standing in front of the opening and holding his gun up, grinning.

"No one is going anywhere."

* * *

><p><em>And there you have it people! The newest chapter! :D *confetti*<em>

_Thank you Dorayaki for beta-ing this, and the super awesome music I was listening which got me writing. Oh yes, thank you for reading this as well. Give yourself a pat and a cookie for being able to stick to this story for so long. :) _

_I hope you like where this is going, and i am probably going to upload the next chapter really soon because things are starting to get fun. *oh at last.*_

_Review = motivation & inspiration. You know the drill. *smile smile* _


	14. Don't be pals with his lion

_A special shout out to **Hetalover14**, _

_thank you so much for the support and love! ^w^_  
><em>both Romano and I thank you for the churros and hug and it's a little late, but good luck for your school! I'm so sorry I couldn't update before you go back to school. Though... Err... I'll give you some tomatoes...? :D offers a basket of tomatoes  
><em>

_**And now to the readers who's been supporting me all these time**,_

_Thank you so very very much. I'm almost scared that I'm uploading too fast. Like, what if I really come to the end of this story someday?! QAQ /shot for being weird. So to thank you guys, I'm going to tell the 100th review something that's going to happen in this story in the near future. /shot for offering spoiler._

_Well it's up to you if you want to hear it or not~ _

_So now, after all the talk, here comes the shortest chapter in this story so far. Enjoy~ _

* * *

><p>"Come on! let go! I have to go back!" Alfred argued as he tried to pull the corner of his shirt out of Besta's mouth. The latter refused to listen and kept his mouth shut, pulling back as he growled.<p>

It was a pain, but the two of them managed to escape from the cave. Besta led the way and Alfred followed, cradling the smaller animals while the other slightly bigger animals ran beside them. They waited for England behind some bushes, a good few meters away from the exit of the cave. But it's been half a day and England was still not showing yet. Alfred got restless and well...

Besta decided to drag Alfred to somewhere safe before he try to run back in there.

"Look. I need to go back and save England alright?" Alfred tried to reason with the beast, "I don't know what kind of weird animal-and-pirate promise you two have, but I am not going back to the ship without him!"

Besta growled again, obviously pissed at Alfred. What did England see in this guy? He wouldn't even consider eating him knowing that his fats level was probably off the chart. So why in the world did a captain who's tons more important bother to risk his life just to save this idiot?

"So you're fine with escorting me back to the ship while he die in there?" Alfred demanded, digging his heels into the soft soil and refused to move a inch. Sure England won't exactly die, he's a country after all. But it would still hurt, he could still suffer from the pain.

Enraged by Alfred's remark, Besta finally let go and roared at Alfred, frustrated and helpless. What in the bloody world- of all the things he wanted to do right now, charging right in there to save England was on the top of his list. But _no_, he had to struggle to drag this uncooperative brat all the way to the ship so he'll be safe. Just because of an order...

He couldn't remember the last time England had actually ordered him to do something.

"Whoa whoa, chill!" Alfred raised both his hands up in a surrendering position. He should seriously remember that the lion's probably eager to kill him.

"Okay err I can't understand you like how England can, so let's try it this way. If you agree with what I am saying, nod. If you don't. Growl. Alright?" He asked, speaking slowly and clearly as if he was explaining it to a toddler.

He was so relieved that Besta nodded, instead of trying to bite his head off. That's good, they were progressing. ... Well sort of.

Come to think of it, wasn't England's national animal a lion?

... Alfred just had a very good idea why Besta was so mean to him. Like master like pet huh?

"So, I'm guessing that you're itching to save that extremely unreasonable and annoying pirate, right?"

A nod.

"...And you're pretty mad with both me and England right now cos the both of us are being idiots."

Another nod.

Wow, Alfred's starting to change the way he viewed Besta.

"If you're agreeing that England's being stupid, then... Oh god, don't tell me. He made you promise to bring me back to the ship, didn't he?" Alfred felt a facepalm coming on. Stupid England, always disregarding himself for his people. He should really give him a lecture on caring for himself next time.

Besta nodded again, grunting a bit at the same time, as if he had read Alfred's mind.

"He really needs a good beating, doesn't he?" Alfred gave Besta an understanding look. Now he knew why Besta was so keen on dragging him to the ship. He bet that the moment he was safe on the ship, Besta would charge right back into the cave.

"Say, are you thinking of saving him alone when I'm stuck on the ship?" He raised an eyebrow; like master like pet, right?

Besta flinched a little, but remained silent and still.

... So even the pet was as stubborn huh?

"Dude. Don't learn too much from England. He's not exactly the best example in the whole world." Alfred sighed and gave Besta a friendly pat on the head, getting a slight growl in return. Talk about loyalty. So it's no saying bad things about England or it's getting his hand bitten off. Got it.

"Tell you what, let's have a deal. You disobey England just for this time and I swear. I'll get him out of that place in one piece, or my name isn't Alfred F. Jones." he grinned confidently.

Then again, he was called America.

Besta fell silent once again as he considered the offer. It was true that this human, despite being an idiot, could be a huge help. He will probably need all the help that he could get anyway. Boy, England's going to be so mad at the both of them when he saw them charging in to save him.

Besta could almost imagine England shouting at them after all of this. That was, if they could all get out alive. As far as he could tell from the days of observation, there's definitely more than a mere 5 people in that cave. No matter how fast he could run, the chances of him winning against the flying metal bullets were still miserably small.

"Hey, don't over think things." Alfred reminded, getting Besta to look at him. "All I'm asking for is your cooperation. Just leave the rest for me!" he did his signature 'hero' pose, perfecting it with a confident grin.

There was a final nod after much hesitation.

* * *

><p><em>Ayy, isn't it nice to see a short chapter once in a while? :D shot for the bad excuse_

_*Cough* I'm so sorry for not updating and when i finally did, I gave you such short work. But I was sick for 3 weeks and i am still trying to recover. That aside, I am having my final exams too and well, worrying for my fanfic is definitely not working. OTL_

_So erm... Please forgive me...? _

_I'll get the next chapter out ASAP, okay? _

_Ah but reviews still help~ just saying~ /shot for being thick skinned_


	15. Don't let anyone hurt him

England still couldn't believe his luck.

He could and should have won those pesky low levelled grunts. But who would have thought that there were traps in the cave itself? It was almost like a joke actually. He was still taking a strong stand and almost winning even though he was badly outnumbered. The grunts had guns, but their shooting skill was so horrible that more than half the bullets weren't even close to hitting him.

And what did he lose to?

Traps.

Bloody hidden traps that covered almost every square inch of the cave. One wrong move and you get a huge metal cage falling from the cage ceiling, straight at you. If that wasn't enough, try dodging the cage and at the same time, jump straight into a camouflaged pit in the ground. Great. Talk about a fair fight. How bloody brilliant.

However the frustration, he was being forcefully captured and had his firearms snatched away from him. The load of bastards was apparently smart enough to tie him up, securing his hands behind his back and tying his legs together with thick ropes. In fact, they were so tightly tied up that England couldn't even stand up if he try to.

Look on the bright side, even if he did manage to stand up, there's no way for him to escape from the bunch of grunts with their damned weapon. Not if his only way of movement was hopping like an injured rabbit. God dammit.

Taking care not to make it too obvious, England twisted and turned his wrists, hoping to loosen the ropes. He kept his eyes on the morons sitting around a wooden table a few meters away from him, cleverly seizing his movements and acting vulnerable when they turned to check on him.

They left three miserable lackeys who looked like trees that suffered from malnutrition to watch the most dangerous pirate at sea. Genius. Someone give the head of the gang a pat on the back.

That being said… he's probably not going anywhere if he can't do anything about the two knots that were restraining his moments. To think he had to go through all these trouble just because some nitwit decided to lose his balance and kick the metal cages. England sighed and decided to think about the dozens of animals he had managed to save, convincing himself that this was not for nothing.

Besides… he managed to protect his vice-captain, who's probably being safely escorted to the ship by Besta by now. Now that there's one less person to worry about… He better start thinking of a way to escape. England looked up and started scanning the interior of the cave, looking for possible escape routes.

The cave itself was really quite empty. Besides the table and two chairs, all England could see was rough and bumpy rock walls that formed the inside of the cave. There were three main tunnels leading out from the current chamber he was in.

The first one was the one closest to the three pathetic excuses for thugs, so it was definitely out. The second one was somewhat at an equal distance between him and the other two. It was a lot narrower than the other two, so it should serve as a great tunnel for him to lose the two morons if they give chase. The third one was closest to him, but was safely the widest tunnel among the three-

England's eye twitched when he saw something- someone waving at him with a huge smile. Someone with a head of blonde hair and a pair of sky blue eyes; the same person who got him in this situation and who should be on the ship by now… Imagine England's surprise when Besta popped up beside that someone…

Screw this. England swore that he's giving those two a piece of his mind after this. Why the hell did he even bother to trust that those two won't do something idiotic in the first place? After all, idiocy was contagious, and it's obvious that Alfred was influential enough to apparently change a lion.

England took a deep breath to resist the urge to start shouting at the two and instead, glared at them. The both of them flinched almost at the same time, and then as one made a sheepish silent laugh, the other lowered its head in guilt. England sighed and decided that since the two's already here, there's nothing he could do but give them hints on the current situation.

As he recovered from his sigh, a small smile flashed on his face for less than a second. Despite the moron's stupid actions, he was still heartened and almost amazed by the fact that the idiot was willing to disobey him and come back for him.

He had never been so proud of making Alfred his vice-captain.

* * *

><p>"Dude, he looks super mad." Alfred whispered to Besta, who grunted a little in agreement. "Aww man, he's definitely going to give us a long nagging after this…" Alfred noted as he gave the Brit an apologetic laugh.<p>

The two managed to sneak back into the cave after waiting for a crowd of grunts to leave. With the help of Besta's powerful sense of smell, they soon found England at where they last saw him, tied up and bruised here and there, though mostly unhurt.

But they soon realized a grave issue: due to the angle of the tunnel they were in, the two were unable to hide themselves and see what was in the chamber at the same time. Sure they could still charge in and try saving England, but it would be dangerous to do so without knowing how many grunts stayed to guard England.

"Oii, the three of you morons over there." A voice demanded, getting Alfred to look.

"I'm thirsty." England ordered, looking all high and mighty despite the situation he was in.

Alfred's eye twitched a bit. The nerve of that arrogant pirate asking for a drink. He was going to get all of them killed! He was-

"Drink this!" one of the grunts poured a bucket of sea water down England's throat, making him choke and sputter and drenched with water. Alfred swore he didn't laugh at this.

Once the bucket was out of his face, England sat in his spot, motionless and dripping wet. Then, when the grunt leaned in closer to check on the pirate, England kicked him right under the chin, making his jaw snap in half. Well whaddya know? It wasn't such a waste to steal steel-toed boots after all.

"Don't just bloody sit there! Move!" England ordered as the other two grunts sat up, grabbing a dagger each.

"O-oh! Right!" Alfred immediately shot up and digging into his pocket, grabbed a piece of fried fish fillet out of it. Ignoring England's exclamation in the background, he tossed the fish fillet at one of the grunts, hitting him on the head. The guy let out a yelp and fell backwards. His head hit a leg of the table, causing him to pass out.

"Nufufu, one down!" Alfred clapped the bits of bread crumb off his hands and finished with a heroic pose.

"Hey! You bloody piece of- I MADE THAT!" England snarled, glaring at Alfred with such strong killing intent that if looks could kill, Alfred would have withered there and then.

"Into a weapon!" Alfred argued as he ran towards England, squatting down to work on the ropes on his hands.

The third grunt, admittingly, was now wondering if he should attack or run away. Sure he probably won't stand a chance fighting against a pirate and someone who managed to finish his friend off with a piece of food. But if his head were to know of his coward act, he's as good as dead.

With the possible consequences clearly laid in front of him, the grunt tightened his grip on the dagger and with an unmanly battle cry, charged at Alfred who had his back facing him.

His battle cry did more bad than good as both Alfred and England turned their focus on him. Not to mention that Besta attacked out of nowhere and managed to pin him down before he was even close to touching Alfred.

"Dude, that was awesome!" Alfred gave Besta a high five as England watched with a skeptical expression.

"What in the world have you been teaching my lion?" England asked as he felt the corner of his mouth twitch.

"I made him awesome-er." Alfred did a thumb up as he put up his signature grin. England on the other hand, was resisting the urge to high 5 Alfred's face with one of those metal chairs.

Oh what the heck, why did he even bother to.

England knocked Alfred on the head with all he had.

"Ouch! Dude, is that how you thank someone who just saved your sorry butt?!" Alfred whined as he rubbed the sore spot on his head.

"No, but it's the way to treat a person who throws food that you've painstakingly made for him." England stated matter-of-fact-ly as he stood up and stretched, appreciating the freedom that was returned to him… By the very same person who indirectly took it away.

Alfred found England glaring at him again.

"Ahah… At least it saved you… Hahaha…." He laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

"Speaking of which, why are you even here-" England suddenly stopped as he turned to stare at one of the tunnels, the alert and serious expression returned on his face.

"What's up?" Noticing the change of mood for once, Alfred quickly scrambled up on his feet and looked in the same direction England.

All three of them kept dead quiet, anticipating something. True enough, within seconds, they heard footsteps, really rushed ones. Along with the footsteps were shouting of orders and the clanging of metal. Before Alfred knew it, he could already see the shadows of the crowd approaching.

"Oh crap." Muttering under his breath, Alfred grabbed England's arm and gave Besta a nod. With that, the both of them started their mad dash for the nearest tunnel, Besta leading the way and Alfred dragging England behind him.

"Wait, my-"

"Whatever it is, it's not important. Now catch up!" Alfred interrupted and slowed down a little, clear of the fact that despite his look, England did suffer quite the hit from earlier.

He was such an idiot. He promised the tiny him that he won't let anyone hurt England.

"Alfred! keep your head in the game." England shouted and knocked Alfred on the head again. Behind them, the crowd of not so friendly looking grunts were closing in.

"Oh, right!" Alfred nodded. It's still not too late to make up for his mistake. "I hope you're at least strong enough to run faster than that!"

"Wha- of course I can! I'm the Wolf of the sea, mind you!" England scoffed and quickened his pace, running ahead of Alfred.

"Good, my turn." Grinning, Alfred came to a stop and finally, took his gun out of its holster and pointed it at the approaching crowd.

Sensing that Alfred stopped, England spun around. "Why the hell are you stopping?! That pathetic bullet of yours isn't going to be much help!"

"Oh I wouldn't say that." Without turning to look at England, Alfred pointed the gun forty five degrees upwards instead, and fired.

The bullet shot out of the gun barrel and drilled right into the tunnel's ceiling causing a particular rock to tumble down, landing right in the middle of the tunnel and blocking the path.

England just stared with his mouth opened, stunned and maybe, just a little amazed.

"Heh heh, not a bad move for a vice captain, eh?" Finally turning around, Alfred grinned proudly as he brought the smoking gun barrel near his mouth and blew the smoke away, cowboy fashioned.

"…" England sighed and shook his head, laughing a little. "Yeah, first bullet ever and you shot it in the ceiling. Great move. Brilliant."

"Of course, this is just the basics of being a hero!" Alfred laughed.

"… Some people just can't sense sarcasm."

But the moment of rest did not last when several grunts started climbing over the rock. The two continued running again with the Brit in front, scolding his lackey as they ran. Alfred simply laughed sheepishly as he followed.

The goes the only bullet. Well… At least he was able to give England some time to rest.

The two of them made it out of the cave at last, where Besta was eagerly waiting.

Knowing that the grunts were not far behind, England ordered Besta to seek help back at his ship and Alfred… Insisted that he'll stay with England this time. The moment Besta was out of sight, the crowd of armed grunts surrounded them, all grinning slyly as they circled around the two in the circle, standing with their back against each other.

"Okay, here's the plan. You take the ten over there, I'll take care of the others." Alfred suggested as he pointed to the 10 thugs with slightly less dangerous weapons.

"And what? Watch you stun them with your stupidity? You just lost your bullet, remember?" Rolling his eyes, England reached out for his guns, planning to toss Alfred one of his. His eyes widened when he found both his holsters empty.

"Looking for this?" A pair of hands raised up from the crowd, holding one of England's guns each.

… Oh yeah. He was about to grab his firearms from the table when some moron decided that it wasn't important and dragged him away. England's lost count of the number of times he glared at Alfred today.

"What? I didn't know okay!" Alfred shrugged.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we've got a big guest today." The pair of hands apparently belonged to the head of the group, a slightly plump but muscular man who's just a little taller than England.

"Captain Arthur Kirkland, well known Wolf of the sea, most blood thirsty and cruel pirate to sail on the seven seas. A pirate so popular that he won the country's name itself! What honors of meeting you here!" The man laughed as his grunts laughed along, stopping in uniform when he waved his hand.

"Hmm. Looks like the pig did his research for once." England smirked as Alfred nudged his back with his elbow. Heck, can't he just drop his pride once in a while? The other guy's got two guns for goodness sake!

"Big talk for someone who's going to become sliced meat." The head retorted, not looking the least offended. "But before that. I'm curious. Why would a sea dueller come on land? Or to say, why would someone like you care about those fleabags?"

"I don't see the need to answer to scums of a lower level." England replied calmly, getting another nudge from Alfred. Annoyed, he lifted his foot and kicked back on Alfred's calf. The latter whined a little.

"Oh, I know what trick we're playing here, Mr England. Don't worry. Your crew will come right in time to collect your bodies." He smiled as he moved to face Alfred. "Meanwhile, how about we get your lackey to talk instead? He looks a lot more cooperative."

Alfred was getting the urge to start kicking the 'penguin' in front of him when England finally spoke, getting his attention. To tell the truth, Alfred was pretty interested in the reason why England would bother risking his life to save the animals. He's a pirate right?

"I wouldn't care less if you were to rob another island's animals or plants. But here, the king of the forest happens to be my acquaintance." England narrated in a deadpan voice and secretly nudged Alfred back, hinting for him to get ready.

Alfred felt a sweat down his forehead… That's.. Definitely what the England he knew would say. So Besta really wasn't just any lion huh…

"If you really did your research, then you should be very aware of how I work. Causing trouble for my people, and you're on my to-kill list." With a grin, he lifted his hand and snapped his finger.

The next thing the head of the grunts know, Alfred had already kicked him in the abdomen and sent him tumbling back. The guns slipped out of his hands and landed beside England's foot.

"You piece of shit! Attack them! And make sure they don't live to tell another word." Agitated (finally), the head ordered as the grunts ran in, swinging their knives, sticks and what not.

Alfred had an easy time dealing with the first few guys as England grabbed his guns. Aiming for the two closest grunts, he pushed the trigger down. But to both England and Alfred's dismay, nothing came out. The guns didn't have any bullets.

"Dude that's not cool!" Alfred complained as he bent down to dodge a side swipe and kicked the attacker's foot, causing him to fall.

"What- don't blame me! How am I supposed to know that there's no bullet?!" England snorted and elbowed a grunt in the jaws, hearing a crack and a painful yelp.

"Next time, think of that before you make me kick someone!" He said as he punched the lights out of a grunt and conveniently borrowed his knife. Sweet, it's pretty sharp. "Now would be a good time to regret giving me just one miserable bullet."

"Not a chance, you'll just shoot all of them at rocks anyway." Sinking his metal heels into the leg of a poor grunt, England replied smartly.

"Nuh-uh, I totally saved you from France and the other two last time. You still owe me as well-"

"Ahhhg!"

Alfred immediately swung around, spotting a grunt on the ground behind him, unconscious. England stood just a step away, holding a dagger in his hand. "There, now we're even." Giving him a nod, England went back to his killing.

Within minutes, the two had managed to clear half of the crowd, which pretty much got the head hopping mad. A good number of eighty people against two, and they were still losing?! Shouting a few swearing at the people in front of him in general, he fumbled in his pocket and picked out a gun.

Pointing at the pirate that was such an eye sore, he aimed carefully and pressed down on the trigger, smirking. It's all over. Even if that guy did live up to his reputation, as long as he was human, he can't survive a bullet to the head, can he? It's all over, he's going to win, and killing the so called invincible pirate was going to get him so much acknowledgement.

Oh what a perfect scenario. Too bad the 'penguin' didn't consider Alfred in his plan.

"England! Duck!"

"Hm-"

-BANG-

England's eyes widened, his mind still blur and not sure of what's going on. There's a gun shot. He's on the ground. Alfred's on top of him. Alfred's… bleeding.

…

"Alfred!" England shouted, his voice filled with so much fear and anger that it shocked himself. "Bloody hell what in the world were you- You're bleeding! God dammit!" he blurted as he eyed the gun shot on Alfred's chest worriedly. It's so close to the heart. Oh shit Ah heck.

"Tch. What a pain." The head cursed as he cocked the gun, taking aim again. Smiling triumphantly, he pressed down on the trigger again.

-BANG-

England watched as the gun got shot away from the head's hand, followed by many voices shouting his Captain name. Turning around, he heaved a sigh of relief to see Besta running his way. Behind Besta, was his most trusted and efficient crew. Heck. This was over. He's winning this.

"Well, looks like my job here's done." Alfred smiled, but the smile soon stifled as he coughed a little. Wow, he knew that the gunshot won't kill him, but the pain was so freaking bad that it's hard for him to keep conscious.

"Heck no your job is far from over. You're still responsible for helping me take care of America. So if you dare die now, I'll never forgive you." England demanded, sounding more angry than worried.

But really, Alfred knew his England better than this.

"Nufufu. Of course. The hero's too awesome to die." Shit, losing conscious. "But now, You owe me one."

The next thing Alfred knew, everything was black.

* * *

><p><em>And i am done!<br>Anyone missed me or this story?  
>I had some help from <span>Dorayaki chan<span> who's having her exams soon. Do me a favor and wish her good luck :D _

_I hope you laughed while reading this cos it was fun writing it. :3  
>well.. Since it's long... I hope to get some comments from you guys.<br>Thanks!_

_Reviews= inspiration + motivation + a faster update_

_Love ya guys. _


	16. Don't write your name on his face

_I am going to put my note before you read the story, or else I'll ruin the after mood. _

_So umm... this chapter is officially 9 days late, but it's long and full of hints here and there, so have fun reading, yeah? :D I'm already working on the next one so please look forward to it. Meanwhile _

_Review = motivation + the strength to fight my writer's block. _

_Love ya guys. _

* * *

><p>When Alfred woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was on a bed. The second thing he noticed was that he couldn't move.<p>

He immediately snapped his lazy eyes open, shock and anxiety ran through his mind as he struggled to move his arms. He could feel his muscles tensing up, but something was stopping him, something was restricting his movements. Having a huge blanket on him, he had absolutely no idea what was going on and truth be told, he was starting to panic even more than before. The spot where the bullet had hit still stung a little, but his brain told him that he's all good to go.

Okay, so now what?

Alfred craned his neck upward, as far as it could go and scanned the room, in hope to find any tool that might be useful, but instead of finding tools, he found a person sitting on an oak chair beside the bed. That gave him a shock and he instinctively fell back. The person was none other than England.

The Brit was leaning against the seat's back rest, his arms and legs crossed. An opened book lay on his lap and his head hug low. Alfred lowered his head as well to get a closer look at England's face, and was a little surprised to find the latter's emerald eyes closed.

He managed to fall asleep on a wooden chair?

That's… rare.

Alfred was still a little amazed by how peaceful and almost vulnerable England looked when he was asleep when he heard the door creaking open. Turning around, he saw the tiny him's eyes widen and an elated smile spread across the child's face.

"Alfwad! You're finally awake!" America exclaimed in a whisper as he ran towards Alfred, jumping up on the bed and hugging him.

Alfred would love to hug back, but he still had no idea why he couldn't move his arms at will. Instead, he smiled warmly and whispered that he missed him too.

"You know, England was so worried about you that he's always sitting in there, for three days straight!" America mentioned with some childish actions, making it the cutest explanation ever.

"Wait, then what were you doing?" Alfred asked, realizing a possible problem.

"Eh? Umm. I was with England all the time. He was reading stories to me and teaching me how to draw. I drew a picture of England and you and me! Do you want to see it?" America asked with sparks in his eyes. Alfred simply nodded happily.

"Yay! You're going to love it! England said that it was great!" America exclaimed as he rolled off the bed, running out of the room, leaving Alfred to watch him go with a smile.

Dang, the little him was so cute and perfect, just like him!

"Three days. That's a new record."

Upon hearing the Brit, Alfred immediately turned around, making eye contact with England, who greeted him with a rare smile.

"That was some smooth move out there, genius. You almost gave me a heart attack with the amount of blood you were shedding." There it was, the ever so popular sarcasm.

Alfred sighed. "Dude, is this seriously what you're supposed to say to someone who just saved your life?"

"Of course not. But what did you expect from me?" the latter grinned as he shut the book on his lap.

"...Fine. Be that way." Knowing that argument would be pointless, Alfred gave in without much of a fight. "But can you at least tell me why I can't move freely?"

"Oh, right. About that." Standing up, England took a step towards the bed and helped lift the blanket away.

Alfred just… couldn't believe what he saw. The upper half of his body was fully covered in bandage and his arms were being wrapped to his body. If that wasn't bad enough, there's probably more than five layers of bandage, making it thick and stiff. He was practically half a mummy. No wonder he couldn't lift his arms up.

He turned to glare at the only person in the room, hoping to deliver the message that he did not appreciate this sort of treatment, even if it was of good intention.

"Don't look at me, I'm not the one who did that." Shrugging, England lifted both his hands in the air. "Do I look like the kind who bothers to help a git who shot his last bullet at rocks?"

"Oh come on! That totally worked!" Alfred argued. "Besides, for a vicious and so called brilliant pirate, you're one horrible liar. Who else besides you would be free to ban-"

"Ahh! Alfwad, don't sit up! The bandage will come loose!" Running back into the room, America left the drawing paper on the floor and hopped up on bed, pushing Alfred's head back on the pillow. "It took me a long time to get them this tight!"

"You were saying?" England lifted the corner of his mouth in a grin.

"… Wait. Wait wait wait. America, you… Did this?" Alfred asked, a little confused.

The child nodded with a bright smile, obviously proud of his work.

"Both you and England were injured when you came home, so I helped bandage both your wounds! England recovered earlier than you, so his bandages came off. But you still have to wait or your wound will open again." America instructed, still pushing Alfred's head down.

"Eh? Ah, but the hero's already-"

"America, Alfred here's very grateful for your help. But being an idiot who recovers fast, he's probably all fine now. Why don't you get the first aid kit and remove the bandage for him?" England interrupted, ignoring the glare that Alfred threw at him upon the word 'idiot'.

With the strong belief that England's always right, America nodded happily and ran out of the room again.

"…Dude, how can you even move in this?" Alfred asked, struggling to sit up.

"I can't." The latter replied without looking at Alfred. "But he's so determined about helping that I can't possibly stop him. Disapproving cute little angels like him is a grave crime." He smiled to himself contently.

Alfred could seriously see love and adoration overflowing from England towards the tiny him and for a moment, he couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. But having slept for three days, he was just about all out of energy, and thinking was something he deemed a waste of energy. So he simply sighed and smiled along with England.

He had to admit it though.

That he can feel the tiny him love England as well.

* * *

><p>After the bandage was finally removed and Alfred were free to move again, America went on to showing Alfred what England and he had drawn, his eyes filled with enthusiasm and excitement. England on the other hand, was in the kitchen, busy preparing what Alfred would call 'the world's most destructive weapon', dinner.<p>

"Say, kid." Alfred called and pointed to the table full of America's scribbles. "Why don't you write your names on the drawings?"

"Eh? Writing my name?" America tilted his head a little to look at Alfred with his big sky blue eyes, lost and absolutely adorable.

"Yeah. You know, you write your names on things to show that it's yours. For example." Alfred grabbed a random piece of drawing and using a black crayon, wrote America's name at the corner of the drawing.

"See? Now people will know that this is your drawing when they see it. If you accidentally loses it, the person who found it will be able to return it to you. It's really useful." He smiled.

"Ah, I see. So I just have to write my name on things that belong to me?" America asked, amazed.

"Yup. Your books, toys, even your shoes!" Alfred nodded, "as long as your name's on it, you'll never lose it."

The little one's eyes were almost filled with sparkles as he shot up from his seat. Grabbing a black permanent marker, he gave Alfred a 'thank you' hug and ran out of the activity room. Alfred sat in the room, smiling as he watched the tiny him go. Kids, they're never out of energy.

"Well then. I guess I should go make sure that eyebrows doesn't kill us with his cooking." Alfred muttered as he stood up, walking out of the room towards the kitchen.

America ran into his room and opened his toy box, happily humming a song England taught him as he wrote his name on every toy. When he came across the wooden toy soldiers that England gave him, however, he decided to keep it as it is. Not that he didn't like it, but because he loves it too much.

He then move on to his books, clothes, and even wrote his name in scraggly scribbles on the room's wall.

Having finished writing his name on all the things, he stood in the middle of the room and gave it a satisfied look.

There. Now if he ever lost a wall, he can easily find it.

Upon completing what he set out to do, America felt his stomach growl and realized that it was lunch time. Running to the kitchen, America could smell the food from a few rooms away. When he was closer, he was able to hear England shouting, followed by Alfred's laughing. Curious, he ran behind a wall and peeked into the kitchen.

When he saw what was going on, however, he started giggling to himself.

Alfred was standing beside the sink, laughing and ignoring the curses and complaining from England, who was busy trying to wash the remnants of fried egg off his hair.

"Bloody hell, why in the world would anyone with the least bit if common sense sneak up on someone who's cooking?!" England scoffed as he brushed a few bits of egg white off his shoulder.

"Hahahaha, that's totally not my fault. You should blame yourself for getting shocked so easily." Alfred laughed, the fact that England managed to accidentally toss the fried egg on his own head made it even funnier.

"Bollocks! It's obviously your fault! Not only did you make a mess, you wasted a perfectly good egg!"

"England. That egg was charred." Alfred pointed out.

"Because you scared me!" England rebutted, getting the last bit of egg yolk off his hair.

"No I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with me." Alfred smiled helplessly.

"Well, if you have that many complaints, why don't you cook then?" Giving the teen a glare, England shoved the spatula handle in Alfred's hands.

"But I just recovered! I can't cook!" He wanted to eat England's cooking, even if it might be more deadly than that bullet.

"You only have yourself to blame-"

"England, I want to eat your cooking too." America popped up from his hiding place and said, running to hold England's hand.

Alfred could have sworn that England blushed a little and truthfully, he felt a little jealous-. Wait. Jealous? What jealous? He's the hero! Why would he be jealous of tiny him? Over England?

"Really? You want to eat it?" England asked, smiling as the child nodded almost immediately.

"W-well if that's the case, I have no choice then. America, bring Alfred outside and wait for a while more. It won't take long." He instructed as America nodded and dragged Alfred out of the room.

Ignoring the weird feeling from earlier, Alfred exchanged a high five with the tiny him as they sat around the dining table. It was then when a question crossed his mind. He turned around and strained his neck to see what England was doing, and turned back to look at tiny him when he was sure that England was too busy to eavesdrop on them.

"England won't be able to hear us from here, so you can go ahead and be honest with me. What exactly do you think of his cooking?"

"It tastes horrible." He answered with almost no hesitation.

Alfred grinned. So the two of them did have the exact same thoughts on England's cooking.

"So, why do you still eat them?"

"Even though his cooking is bad, it's full of love, and whenever I eat them, he looks happy." America answered honestly, sure that the person in front of him was worth trusting.

"I see." Alfred hung his head in defeat. "You really do love him huh?" Alfred envied the tiny him for being able to be so honest about his feelings.

"Yup!" America gave Alfred a bright smile, supporting his answer.

"Sorry for the wait, dinner's ready!"

Alfred was about to continue when England emerged from the kitchen with plates of god knows what. He exchanged a glance with America and the two of them, with a nod, thanked England with a smile.

The latter almost died of the sweetness.

* * *

><p>After dinner, England was doing the dishes when America ran into the kitchen, tugging at his pants to get his attention.<p>

"America? Why are you here? Isn't Alfred supposed to read you a book? Is he slacking already?" England asked as he dried his hands on his apron and squatted down.

America simply shook his head and passing England his black marker, pointed to his own hand. "Can you write your name on my hand?"

"…Huh?"

"Please?"

"… Umm… Alright." Blinking his eyes slowly, England wrote his name on America's hand as asked, and returned the marker. He didn't know why the kid asked him to do that, but seeing the boy smile was pretty much all the explanation he needed.

"Is there anything else that you need me to do?"

"Oh, um. Stay still." America instructed as he took off the marker's cap and, before England could react, wrote his name on England's cheek.

With that done, he gigged and quickly ran off, leaving England all puzzled and troubled.

That… Was permanent marker, wasn't it?

* * *

><p>"So you wrote your own name on his face?" Alfred couldn't stop laughing.<p>

Oh god, that guy will either have to go through the pain of scrubbing it off his face or live with that on his face for a good week or two. Precious. Just precious. He should get a photo of that with his phone.

"Um." America nodded and showed Alfred his hand. "I got his name too!"

"Huh? Why would you want his name?"

"So that if I'm ever lost, I'll be able to find my way back to him. And if anyone finds me, they will know that I belong to England. Like this, we'll always be together." America smiled sweetly.

For a moment there, Alfred didn't know if he was supposed to smile at that.

The kid probably won't know.

But it's just a matter of time before it's time for the war. After that.

Well.

Alfred looked down at the watch on is wrist; the same watch that his England gave him years ago.

After that, were they still considered together?

"Alfwad, do you have someone you love as well?" America asked, looking down at Alfred's watch as well.

"Huh? Well… I guess you can say so." Alfred smiled.

"How is this person like?"

"Well… He's known for accidentally setting kitchens on fire, has caterpillar eyebrows, a self-proclaimed gentleman who's actually super mean, and well, he likes to disagree with me a lot." Alfred described as he thought of the England he knew.

Even though the two were the same person, Alfred just had the feeling that this wasn't the same England that he knew. This England here, the one that talked to a lion and sails the sea being a pirate, this England belonged to the tiny him. And his England… well… he had no idea how or when he'll get back to his time, or when he'll be able to meet his England. But he did know that he's missing that specific England. The one who would always call him a git, the one who's always giving him burnt scones, the one that he love.

America giggled. "He sounds so much like England!"

Alfred nodded in agreement.

"Does he know that you love him then?"

"Of course not. I didn't tell him."

"Why didn't you?"

"I don't know. I accidentally hurt him in the past, and I think I can never make that up to him. So he probably still hates me."

"Umm… Tell him anyway. Alfwad is a hero right? A hero has to be true about his feelings. If you ask me, I think that person love you too."

"Huh? How would you know?" Alfred made a bitter laugh.

"if he's really that much like England, then trust me. He loves you too." America smiled and reached out to hold Alfred's hand. "The next time you meet that person, remember to tell him your feelings, alright? It's something a hero has to do!"

Alfred laughed helplessly. "You really got me there, didn't you? Alright. I promise with my hero's name, that I'll tell him that-"

"Tell who what?" England asked as he walked into the room, giving Alfred almost a heart attack.

"Holy- Dude! Can't you make some sounds when you come in?!" Alfred protested as he shot up.

"Says the one who sneaked up behind me when I'm cooking." Ignoring Alfred, England turned to look at America. "What were you two talking about?"

"A hero's promise." America simply smiled.

"Huh… Well just don't come up with anything weird. Alfred, don't be a bad influence or I'm throwing you back to the sea."

"Me?! A bad influence?!"

"Oh, speaking of which. Someone came to visit you while you were unconscious."

"Eh? Someone? Who's that?" Someone?! Here? In this time slot?!

"I don't know. He was wearing a cloak and had his face covered. I assumed that he was your relative and let him in. But he left after seeing you for a while." England said as he walked towards the bookshelf in the room.

"Did he say anything?" Alfred asked, his gut feeling telling him that whoever this person was, he had to find him/her. That person might be his ticket home.

"No. But he did leave you this." Sensing Alfred's sudden change in mood, England had a feeling that something was about to happen, something big. He quickly took a letter off of the shelf and passed it to Alfred, who opened it with shaky, clammy fingers.

"So, what does it say?" He asked as he sat down on the floor. America joined him and sat on his lap, both of them looking at Alfred.

Alfred on the other hand couldn't believe it. He was this close. Why was he unconscious during the moment when that person came? Why was he so useless? He could have. He should have- Heck. He was this damn close!

"Alfred?" England asked again. He was starting to feel a little worried for the guy.

"Uh? Ah. Oh it's nothing, it's from er… my far relative. I might have to leave early tomorrow to go and find him." Alfred explained, folding the letter up.

"Are you coming back?" America asked.

"… I don't really know."

For a few moments, the room remained quiet. Each of them was at a loss for words for different reasons, but all three of them had their mind full of troubling thoughts.

"...However it will be, we will have to live with it. Come on, if you have to leave early, then we better hit the hay." England broke the silence as he stood up, holding America's hands.

"Alfwad, let's go." America reached out to grab Alfred's hand, a little surprised by how cold it was. Something was definitely wrong.

"Alright. You're still sleeping in the middle right?" Alfred forced a smile on his face as he followed. He saw how dark England's face became.

And all of a sudden.

He wasn't sure if leaving was a good idea anymore.


	17. Don't call him a nuisance

Back in Canada's house, the three countries sat around the coffee table for the second time, after their meeting just yesterday.

Canada sat with his bear on his lap, the bear busily eating cookies and leaving cookie crumbs on his uptight looking master. Romania and Japan sat on the sofa facing Canada and the both of them had a serious look on their face as well. After their last meeting, they managed to figure out a lot of things, including how America was able to work the spell and possibly, a way to get him back from whatever mess he got into.

From the looks of how things were now, Romania could only assume that America didn't already screw things up back in whichever time slot. He sighed, unable to persuade himself to trust that. Knowing that guy, Romania won't be surprised if he was told that America already got shot by someone in that time slot.

"Now that we have things more or less figured out, we just have to find way to tell my brother that, eh?" Canada asked, petting kumajiro to somewhat keep him occupied.

"I suppose that is the main problem for now." Japan nodded. "Though I suggest we take contacting England san into consideration."

"We'll leave calling England as our last resort." Romania voiced as he stood up and leaned over to steal a cookie from Kumajiro's plate. "Speaking of which, aren't we still able to call America? His phone's still working right?" He asked as he bit into the chocolate chip cookie.

"I guess that can work, but just how long was my brother gone for?" Canada asked, fearing a possible obstacle in his mind.

"Hai, today would mark a week since the mishap. However, since there doesn't seem to be a meeting scheduled this month, it' is not yet a major issue. However, from what we've heard from America can through our last conversation on the phone, the time at his side seems to flow at a different rate. In other words, one day here in our current time slot could possibly amount for three for four days in the time slot that America's in."

"That might be a problem too, eh?" Canada sighed as he smiled helplessly. As expected from his brother to be able to get into the weirdest messes.

"It's actually quite normal. I'm not very sure myself, but from the looks of things, he didn't travel back in time. Instead, he activated a spell and simply got stuck in a segment of memory." Romania shrugged. "You know how in stories there's people going back in time to fix their mistakes? That's actually not possible. When you go back in time, you simply stumble right into another parallel universe. You can only change memories, not the past."

Romania stopped explaining the theory of time when he noticed Japan and Canada's lost faces. He couldn't blame them, even professional magic users like himself sometimes get puzzled by the theory of time. It's just so complicated. Maybe that's why he's more interested in the so called 'black magic' than time travelling and whatnot.

"Umm... Sorry but, can you put that in a simpler term?" Canada leaned into his shoulders, a little guilty that he wasn't able to understand what Romania was trying to explain.

"It's alright. All you have to know is that since he's in a memory segment, he'll experience constant time change and even sudden time skips. For example,to America, a kitten might just suddenly grow into a cat in one day. Ah but only the ones that belong to the memory will be affected by time skip. America or anyone else from another time won't be affected at all. Surprised, maybe.

Time skipping will be even more obvious in this case since it's the memory of countries. After all, we don't age like how our people do. Just take China for an example. I bet no one would believe that he's 4000 years old." Romania listed, getting a nod of understanding from his two 'students'.

"Which sort of brings us back to a little question of mine." Canada raised his hand. "It's been a week even here, so... Wouldn't my brother's phone be out of battery already?"

Canada's question immediately struck realization into Romania and Japan's wide opened eyes.

"...Oh, so the two of you didn't thought of that...?" He felt a drop of sweat down his forehead.

"Who are you?" The bear asked after emptying his plate of cookies, now licking bits of crumbs off its paws.

"Canada." The latter reached for the cookie box and poured more cookies on both Kumajiro and Romania's plate, earning a appreciating nod from the both of them.

"Romania kun, if you may." Japan said as he turned to look at Romania, who had started attacking the plate of cookies.

"Huh?" Looking right back at Japan, the latter was still chomping on his cookie when he realize what Japan meant. "Oh, right. On it." Quickly stuffing the rest of the cookies into his mouth, he clapped the crumbs off his hands and reached for his cellphone.

"Ah well, better late than never. Let's hope that his phone is as long lasting as his ego." He joked and punched America's numbers on, then put the audio to speaker mode.

The other two immediately leaned in in hope to be able to listen clearer. The three stayed motionless in that position, afraid that any movement of theirs might make them miss anything. As they listened to the waiting tone, bits of hope were list with each passing second. Romania was about to give up and end the call too, when finally, someone picked it up.

* * *

><p>He woke up to a warm morning, the rays of golden sunlight shone through the room's window, bringing a comfortable amount of warmth to him and lit the place up.<p>

Stifling a yawn, he sat up on his bed and stretched a little. He then stayed sitting there, waiting for his mind to wake up. After being fully alert, he stood up and walked out of his house, greeted by a refreshing breeze, sending his soft light brown hair swaying in the wind.

"Ah, England! Good morning!" A little fairy flew forward to greet him, bringing with her a trail of fairy dust and a huge smile on her face.

"Hmm? Oh, good morning to you too. It's Arthur, remember?" He winked at the little fella before running a hand through his hair, enjoying the fresh morning.

Having ended up here on a whim, Arthur had absolutely no plan at all. It was plan luck that the fairies here seemed to know everything, and the fact that he found the house in the forest that he used to live in a long time ago. Looking back, he couldn't quite remember why he abandoned it when it was situated at such a beautiful place.

"My, sorry. My bad." The little fairy smiled sheepishly, sticking out a tongue and gently knocked her head with her hand. "But you look just like him!"

"That's because I am him." He rolled his eyes and smiled. "Maybe a little older and worn out, but definitely the same guy."

"No, no. Be it England or Arthur, you can never look old! if you ask me, you look a little more mature." The fairy suggested with a cheeky smile, getting the Brit to laugh.

"Right, next time I wish to be in cloud nine, I'll look for you and your sweet words." He gestured for her to follow and turned to walk into his house, the latter gladly followed.

The interior of the house was pretty simple. Besides the living room, there's only a kitchen and a bedroom. Though small, the house was well decorated and cozy enough for anyone to just drop by and feel home. There's a sofa in the living room, a coffee table, and a self that used to be filled with books. The kitchen had every household tool still there and untouched. He remembered not cooking when he was younger; it was simply too troublesome to cook when there's only one person eating.

The bedroom however, was filled with more things than the other two rooms. Besides the built in washroom, there's the large bed, closet, a locked chest of some sort and. Well. Lots of soft toy for some reason. The soft toys came in all shapes and sizes; teddy bears, kittens, puppies, dolphins, and even a whale the size of a small sofa. The only similarity they shared was that they were all hand sewn. But as much as he wanted to know, Arthur couldn't remember why the toys were here, or why they were sewn.

But of course, there's also the question why the house looked like it was ready for anyone to live in.

Well. Whatever. This house belonged to him, and that's all that really mattered for now.

Dropping the fairy a strawberry on the dining table, Arthur joined the delighted fairy round the table, sipping on his cup of Earl grey as he watch her enjoy her treat. He never got round to ask why fairies were crazy about strawberries. No matter, as long as his little friend here's happy, nothing else mattered.

With half of the cup's content gone, he gazed at the scenery outside the window and wondered when that bloody git's going to come and find him. He's not really eager to see him since he just saw the guy wrapped up like a mummy and lying in bed two days ago, but he's eager to know what the hell happened.

How in the world did that idiot get injured? To think it was not just a normal injury, but a gun shot, Arthur was never this appreciate of the fact that countries can't die by physical wounds. He sighed and turned to look at his tea, wondering if he's done the right thing coming here.

Aside from the fact that the whole purpose of sealing this memory with a spell was so that he could never stumble upon it again, there's also the problem that he didn't belong here. Alfred may not belong here as well, but he at least looked different from America here in this time slot. But the England here will be able to tell that something's wrong with one look at him.

"You know, maybe I shouldn't be here. Ame-" He paused, sensing his mistake. "Alfred will probably be able to stumble upon a way to go back on his own. They say the stupid always have a way with luck. He doesn't need my help." he poked at his tea cup, suddenly uncertain of himself.

That git didn't need his help for a long time now.

"Uh?" Looking up from her strawberry to see Arthur frowning, she flew up and patted his shoulder in a reassuring manner. "Of course you should be here! I've noticed Alfred for a while now, and trust me when i tell you that he might never be able to get home if you aren't here. Besides, don't you want to see America?"

Arthur looked up with the mention of America; he really did miss the cute and small America who would come running when he reached home. Maybe if he get to talk to America again, this trip here won't be a waste... Was there even a chance for him to talk to America in the first place?

"No worries!" The fairy exclaimed, as if she had read Arthur's mind; or simply his troubled face. "For the treat alone, I'll help you all the way!" She winked, getting Arthur to smile.

"And how are you going to help-"

Interrupted by a familiar tune, he immediately recognized that as Alfred's phone's ring tone. Thinking that Alfred might be nearby, he shot up and ran outside. Though when he finally realized that the right tone was following him as he moved, he finally remembered that he took Alfred's phone with him during the last visit.

Fishing the phone out of his pocket, Arthur gave a mirth at how long the phone's battery's lasted. Guess Alfred's able to do something right at times. Without a second doubt, he pressed the answer button and held the device to his ear.

"America's currently being a bloody nuisance, this is England. Might I help you?"

Whoever it was on the other end better be able to explain to him why Alfred was in this mess in the first place.

* * *

><p><em>I have a feeling some of you are going to throw stuff at me for posting this chapter. But erm, let's not forget that *cough* i kind of sort of have to build more suspense because i am a evil person *cough* Yeah... gulps._

_After reading you readers' l____oved reviews, i actually began to worry myself. Honestly I have no idea that England might have fallen for Alfred until you guys pointed it out. I was like 'shit what do i do now? Q_Q' So I spent a long time thinking of a way to resolve it, hence the delay in update (this is seriously the best excuse i can come up with orz)_

_**OH I AM CONSIDERINGA TUMBLR BLOG! :D**  
>Well i actually have one but it's mainly for what? Reblogging?<br>The new one is going to be all updates on fanfics, my crazy thoughts, random hetalia doodles and more. So if you don't mind my awesome lameness (what is this i don't even-) and want to see a blog like that, tell me. I'll create one. :3 /in other words i am shamelessly advertising./_

_Man long A/N is long. Sorry for wasting your time, I shall go back and roll in my USUK fandom again. _

_Reviews are loved~_


	18. Don't say goodbye

_Edit: Spelling errors fixed. Also there was a typo where Alfred said 'tiny me' to England. Fixed as well. _

* * *

><p>"Going already?"<p>

Alfred's head immediately lifted to the voice that sounded behind him. He discontinued tying his shoelaces and slowly, almost dreadfully, turned around to face the speaker.

"Y-yeah... Thanks for... Umm... Thanks for taking care of me for the past few days." Alfred repeated the few polite lines he picked up from the games Japan gave him, managing probably the most awkward smile ever.

Well crap, he made the effort to wake up earlier just so he could avoid England. Now the person's in front of him, hands crossed and leaning against the wall in his usual shirt and pants... Just how early did this guy woke up today? Alfred squinted his eyes and attempts to get a better look of England's darkened face; there were obvious eye bags. Did he even sleep...?

"... Don't mention it." England's reply came after a few seconds of silence, but Alfred was relieved to see that the Brit was at least smiling. Though it was a faint smile that only added to his guilt.

The both of them knew that something big was going to happen today; something that's going to change everything. Alfred assumed that the something was good news, and he would have been jumping for joy. But the way England and tiny him reacted to the news yesterday; their expressions became dead weight on his heart, suffocating him.

He knew that he had to leave here sooner or later; this was not his time. But he never thought that leaving could be so hard.

"Though, no matter how rushed you are," England approached Alfred and offered him a paper bag that he failed to notice earlier on. "Breakfast never hurt."

Instead of accepting the paper bag, however, Alfred just looked at it, speechless.

"Well? Do you want me to feed you?" Getting no reply, England thrust the paper bag towards Alfred, obviously a little annoyed.

The paper bag felt warm in Alfred's hands, and adding that to England's eye bags, the picture soon became clear. There's no way he could have gotten it wrong, the person in front of him just stayed up for the whole night to make breakfast for him.

"Don't start getting the wrong idea here. It's nothing really." Sensing something from the other's silence, England clarified as he looked away.

"Take it as a token of appreciation if you want to. I guess you did a decent job taking care of America... O-or you can take it as an apology. As the captain, I wasn't careful enough and almost got you killed... So..." His volume softened as he explained, almost muttering the last few words as he switched to looking down at the ground.

"It's nothing special, so don't treat it like a big deal-"

Alfred had decided that he had heard enough, and standing up, gave England a hug. A hug to show his own appreciation for the awful food, for the adventure, for the somewhat awesome new memories, for ... well… the obviously inedible breakfast.

"Thank you too. You're a great parent, continue to be one." Alfred muttered beside England's ear, the latter simply stunned and confused, but knew to hug back.

"I hope I can say the same thing, but no. I can't qualify someone as a good parent or even a baby sitter when, that someone read ghost stories to a kid and ended up crying with the kid." England replied with a grin.

"..." Well, that was quite the mood killer right there.

"Dude that' mean! What happened to me 'doing a decent job'?" Alfred argued as they separated.

"I had to come up with something to thank you for. What, do you want me to thank you for getting me tied up by a bloody group of morons instead?" England rolled his eyes, as if he was explaining the world's most obvious point.

Alfred was just about ready to argue when he realized that the guy's got a point there. That was sort of his fault. Just sort of. After all if England's a little more skilled then he won't be caught in the first place. See? It's not all his fault!

"Alright, fine. You win." He sighed, the latter grinned in satisfactory.

The two stood in awkward silence after, one swaying on the spot on his heels and one looking away, glancing at the plan walls with his emerald green eyes.

"Well err, I guess I better get going." Alfred finally spoke after several moments, stopping his swaying at the same time. "Tell America that I said goodbye."

"I'd rather not." The other replied with a dismissive wave, "He's sure you'll come back. If I tell him you said that, he'll definitely start crying."

Alfred smiled helplessly, an old memory of him crying and throwing a tantrum when England left him played in his mind.

Yep.

Telling the tiny him that would definitely be a bad idea.

"Who knows, he might be right." The both of them muttered in unison, causing them to exchange a look of surprise, then a chuckle at the same time.

"I really better get going. The person I'm meeting happens to dislike late comers." Alfred turned to walk out of the house, waving as he did so.

"If so, I suppose your friend and I might just get along." England gave a mirth. "Don't get caught by any ghosts along the way." He waved back till the idiot's out of sight.

"And I do bloody wish that America's right." With a final mutter, he closed the door and turned to walk back to the kitchen, joining the silence of the shadows.

* * *

><p>"Huh... so that's what happened." Arthur spoke, nodding to himself.<p>

He had taken a seat under the tree upon deciding that the conversation would be a long one and have been exchanging information with Romania since then.

"I am deeply sorry about the incident, Eng-Arthur san. I shouldn't have given Alfred the book." Japan's voice sounded, filled with apology.

Arthur could almost imagine Japan bowing to him as he chanted the apologies.

"It's alright, we all know how Ame- Alfred is, and you couldn't do anything even if you want to." Arthur felt a drop of sweat down his forehead as he shrugged.

"That aside, do you have any idea how you two are coming back to us?" Romania asked.

"Not at the moment, no." Arthur replied honestly. "All I did was chant the same spell that brought Alfred here, and honestly speaking I haven't got the simplest clue of what to do."

He heard a dramatic exhale from the three on the other end and sighed himself. That probably meant they had no idea either.

"...Arthur, since the spell acts as a lock, wouldn't creating a spell which works as a key solve the problem?" A soft voice pointed out, suddenly putting a look of realization on all the other three people.

"That's brilliant!" Arthur paused.

"... It's Canada."

"Yes, Canada, than you for the reminder. I almost forgot about the key!" Arthur quickly finished his half completed sentence, mentally asking himself who's Canada.

"Cool, so we just have to create a new spell and you two will be out in no time." Romania gave a relieved smile. Finally, some head ways.

"Actually, lucky for us, I've already created the key." Arthur felt himself grin as another dramatic exhale was heard.

"That's great news! Arthur san, if you could, please find Alfred kun and return to us safely." Japan urged, smiling as well.

"Alfred's coming soon." Arthur replied, hearing the footsteps not far away. "But you guys might have to wait a little longer. I don't have the key with me, you see."

"Aw come on... Do you actually have anything with you?" Romania sighed; now they'll probably have to set off to find the key spell in Arthur's house.

"I have my phone here for one, Alfred's phone probably won't last a day more. Don't go all desperate yet, Romania. You don't have to find the key. In fact, all two- "

"Three" Canada's bear interrupted as Canada gave it a thankful ruffle on the head.

"- three of you can rest for now. I'll be able to handle things from here... I hope." Arthur replied.

"Huh? Wait, but how are you going to-"

"Understood, we wish you luck, Arthur san. Meanwhile, please leave things here to us. We'll cover for you in case of any events." Japan gestured to Romania to stop as he gave Arthur a reassuring reply.

"Thanks Japan, remind me to thank you in person when I come back. Ah, that idiot's probably here. I'll have to go now, see you." With that, Arthur hung up before all three of them could reply.

The room returned to silence after that, Japan and Canada returned to their seats as Romania kept his phone. Of course, the silence couldn't last long.

"Say, Japan, why did you stop me from asking E- Arthur the question?" Romania asked, puzzled.

"I have the same question too. What did Arthur mean when he said that we didn't have to look for the key, eh? He said he didn't have it too." Canada added.

"Hai, both of you are correct. However, might I ask you a question, where is the best place to keep a key to something you would never want to open?" Japan smiled knowingly.

The two exchanged a look, then looked back at Japan, asking for an answer.

"The best location to the key would be, of course." He purposely paused for a little effect of his own.

"Locked up behind the very lock the key was meant for."

* * *

><p>Right after Arthur's slipped the phone into his pocket, a familiar voice sounded not far away, calling his name.<p>

"He's here, he's here!" The fairy appeared in front of him in a curtain of fairy dust, looking more excited than a little kid in a candy store.

"Arthur! Alfred's here!" she exclaimed as she danced in the air.

"Alright, alright, I got it." Arthur smiled his reply. "Thanks for leading the way for him, or he might have stepped into a pond out of ignorance."

"Anything for you~! I did all I could, but he still managed to step into a puddle." She shrugged a little helplessly.

"That's simply to be expected, I suppose." Arthur did the same. "Shall we go?"

"Yes, yes! Why are we even chatting? Let's go go go!" She cheered and flew ahead of Arthur, who had to quicken his pace to catch up while laughing.

He had absolutely no idea why the fairy's so happy, but her enthusiasm proved as a sort of amusement. The moment the two arrived in front of the closed door, Alfred was already knocking at it from the other side.

"Ready?" Arthur turned to ask the fairy, who gave a smart nod of her head.

Turning back to face the door, he rested his hand on the door knob and took a deep breath, wondering what kind of expression he should put on.

Angry? Elated? Surprised? Expecting?

How about Alfred? What would his expression be?

Well, he'll never know if he don't open the door.

"Here goes nothing." With a final mutter, he turned the door knob.


	19. Don't forget that he's freaking mean

"I still can't believe that this used to be your room. Stuffed toys, seriously?" Alfred asked as he plopped himself on the huge whale plushy.

"Right, you believed that this whole situation was just some movie setup used to trick you, and here you can't believe that I own toys as a kid." Arthur remarked sarcastically.

"Yeah but so many of them? You're a guy right? Or are you like those weird fish that change their gender as they age?" Alfred joked as he picked a random rabbit plushy out of the stack, amazed by the careful sewing.

"Are you trying to imply that I was a girl?" Arthur raised a brow as he frowned.

"Absolutely." Alfred nodded, purposefully putting on a serious face. The latter simply picked up the biggest stuffed toy near him and smashed it at Alfred's face.

"Jokes aside, mind telling me how you almost got yourself killed?" The ash blonde huffed as he sat down on the bed, glaring at Alfred.

"It's not that bad-"

"You almost got a hole in your heart."

"I won't die anyway." He shrugged. "No need to get so worked up."

"Oh I'm not worked up at all. In fact, I'm not even mad that some bloody git activated my spell without consent and literally got himself in deep water, and I'm definitely not worried that you've injured yourself." Arthur growled. "Tell you what, since you don't mind getting hurt, let me kick you in the face."

"What?! No way! You can't just kick my face for no reason!" Alfred shot up as be rebutted.

"You got shot for no reason!" Arthur stood up too, their angry faces just a few inches apart.

"I was trying to save your sorry butt!" Alfred blurted out, only to realize what he had just said when Arthur's face changed. He immediately covered his mouth.

"I want an explanation. Right now." Arthur demanded in a strong voice, one that Alfred knew meant business. "So you either tell me right now, or wait to be tied to a chair and get answers whipped out of you."

… Ok that actually sounded painful.

"Alright, alright, I'll talk." He surrendered as he raised both his hands up.

"See? Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" Arthur nodded as he turned to walk out of the room, waving for Alfred to follow. "Tell me everything I need to know over tea, or it's the chair for you." Taking a second to look at Alfred, Arthur grinned maliciously.

Alfred suddenly couldn't remember why he love this person.

* * *

><p><p>

"You're such a horrible liar." Arthur remarked in a flat tone as he took a sip of tea. The fairy, invisible to Alfred, rested on Arthur's head.

"Am not! I'm telling the truth!" Alfred pouted as he stirred his tea; there's everything in this house and you can't find a single cup of coffee. How thoughtful.

"Oh, so you expect me to believe that I actually trusted you to be my vice-captain." Arthur gave him the 'you've got to be kidding me' look.

"You forced me to be one! What's wrong with that anyway?! I did save your live didn't I?" Alfred argued.

"From what you've told me, it's obvious that you got me in trouble in the first place." Arthur kept his calm as he put his cup down. "I won't die anyway." He smirked. "No need to get so worked up."

For a few moments, Alfred just stayed speechless, admonished by his own words as he tried to come up with a witty remark. But his brain's got nothing to offer and turning to drink his tea quietly, he decided to let it pass.

It's not like he's bad at arguing or anything, it's just the sad fact that Arthur's probably a thousand times better than him when it came to using his words as weapons. That guy's level of sarcasm was almost legendary.

Seeing that he's won this round, Arthur leaned back on his chair as he grinned contently. "Now that everything's clear, let's discuss on what we have to do next."

"Huh? Why? Aren't we going back already?" Alfred immediately looked up from his tea, surprised by Arthur's suggestion. Wasn't that why Arthur came here? To bring him back to their time?

"Unfortunately, I can't bring us back yet." Arthur shrugged. "Under normal circumstances, most spells are easily reversible by the creator. But a certain idiot just had to trigger a spell that's meant to be irreversible, which means there's a high chance that we're stuck here foreve-"

"I got it I got it! I'm sorry okay! I'll never ever look into your books without permission again. In fact, I won't even touch your stuff at all unless you tell me it's okay to. So just get us a way out of here!" Alfred pleaded as he clapped his hands together.

Arthur grinned.

"I am glad that you are at least responsible enough to admit your horribly childish and moronic mistake. I would love to bring us back, but the process is rather tiring and energy consuming and I might not-"

"One month."

"Hmm?"

"I'll do whatever you want me to do for one month in return."

"One year." Arthur bargained.

"Two months, take it or leav-"

"Deal." The Brit agreed almost immediately, smiling brightly.

Alfred had the feeling that he just got cheated.

"Why do you want to leave so urgently anyway? From what you've told me, you seem to enjoy it here." Resting his folded arms on the dinner table, Arthur asked.

"No thanks, I'm not crazy enough to enjoy being bossed around by the world's most ridiculous pirate." Alfred replied in a deadpan voice. "Besides, they don't have fast food here, and I would kill for a burger."

Of course, there's also the fact that the war was coming their way, and Alfred did not need to experience that again.

"Huh… Well sorry to burst your bubble, but we are going to have to stay here for a little while more. " Arthur put on the most innocent smile he could manage.

"…"

"…"

"YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE DIDN'T YOU!? YOU- YOU- CATERPILLAR BROWS!"

* * *

><p><p>

"Engwand, are you going already?" America asked as he pulled at England's coat, looking up at the Brit.

"I'm really sorry America, but something happened at my house, so I got to go check it out." Bending down to carry America in his arms, England apologized as he planted a kiss on America's forehead.

"But the house gets so lonely without you!" America pouted as he hugged England's neck. "Alfwad is gone too…"

England sighed. He knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"I'm really sorry about Alfred. But he's got a family of his own and people he love, so we can't let him stay with us forever." He consoled, hugging back.

"But I love him too…"

"Me too." England patted America's back gently.

"You love who?" A familiar voice suddenly asked, giving both England and America a fright.

"AHH- Alfred?! What in the bloody world are you doing here?!" England literally jumped.

"Alfwad! You really came back!" jumping down from England's arms, America ran and tackle-hugged Alfred.

"Of course I did!" he laughed as he hugged the mini him, and waved at a certain Brit who started glaring at him.

"Did you come back because your loved one abandoned you?" Blinking his innocent eyes, America asked. Alfred almost choked on air.

"What? Why would that happen?"

"England told me that you left to see your loved one, so if you are back here again, then your loved one must have abandoned you." America replied in the most serious tone a child can manage.

Behind him, England was laughing so hard he found it hard to breathe.

"Don't worry. I will love you twice as much as that person who abandoned you!" America nodded again as he tightened his hug.

"Really? Wow, I feel like the luckiest person alive. Thank you so much!" America hugged back and pointed a middle finger at England.

The latter was still laughing and wondering if he could save this moment forever.

Today's been a crazy day, but if there's one thing Alfred's learnt from today, it would be that England's mean no matter where he was and where he was.

"Reunion hugs aside, how about telling us the real reason why you came back?" Wiping a tear away, England asked. "Or did you really get abandoned? If so, I can offer you some love too." He joked and gave America a high five.

"It's alright, save it for your lion—speaking of which, what happened to it?"

"My original plan was to bring him here and have him babysit America while I'm gone. But after the incident, the both of us decided that he should stay there to protect his kind and we'll just leave the babysitting to you." England smiled brightly. "Welcome back to your job." He patted Alfred on the shoulder.

"…" Alfred's done with this shit.

So done.

"Well, I better get going. America, be good and make sure Alfred here doesn't accidentally kill himself, alright?" He smiled as he ruffled America's hair, the other nodded happily.

"Wha- what kind of goodbye is that?! Why would I ever accidentally kill myself?!"

"You nearly got a hole in your heart, didn't you?" England raised an eyebrows.

"I was protecting you, you annoying caterpillar brows!"

...So much for being glad to be back.

* * *

><p><p>

_"Stay with them for now. We'll need their help to find the key."_

_"What has the key got to do with them anyway?" _

_"Just do what you're told, and don't change anything. Whatever must happen, will happen."_

* * *

><p>AN: Please tell me u guys are still reading this or i swear to god I'll cry. On that note reviews are really appreciated. If I'm forgotten then. Then. Well I'll go get a hole in my heart too. /pouts


	20. Don't eavesdrop on his conversation

"Alfred, Alfred! Wake up already!"

Alfred heard a child's voice calling his name, and with his eyes still closed, he wondered about who the child might be. It sounded like the little him, but not exactly the same as it sounded just yesterday. How should he describe this?

It sounded a little… deeper.

Alfred's eyes flung open at that thought, his sleepy brain fully awake in less than a second.

"Finally!" Sitting on the bed beside him, America heaved a sigh of relief as he put the glass of water back on the bedside table.

…What was he going to do with that glass of water?

On a more important note…

"Hey… Just how long has it been since eyebrows left?" Alfred asked, sitting up.

"Umm… Let me see…" America looked up at the ceiling, counting the days in his head. "It's around two months now, why did you ask?"

"Oh, nothing; just thought that you would miss him." Alfred smiled sheepishly as he came up with a random excuse.

"Of course I miss him. But he's coming back soon, so I just have to wait a little longer." America smiled warmly at the mention of his guardian.

"Huh…" Alfred muffled a reply, lost in his thoughts.

He was told of 'time skips' by Arthur, but this was a little overwhelming. America was still a toddler just yesterday and now he's probably 8 or 9 years old (human age). To think he was planning to bring the little him to visit Arthur…

"Hey, how about this? Since there's nothing to do today, why don't I bring you to visit someone? Alfred suggested with a grin; just a bit older won't matter to that guy anyway.

"Someone? Who?" America's eyes lit up.

"You know, that guy I told you about. The one who sounds a lot like England."

"The person you love who abandoned you?"

"He didn't abandon me!" Alfred cried as the latter giggled.

"What kind of person is he like?" America asked, seemingly interested.

"Hmm… I guess you can say that he's the exact replica of England." Alfred nodded to himself, pleased with his description.

"Even the eyebrows?"

"Yup. Even the horrible cooking skills." Alfred nodded again. "Why don't we go and visit him right after breakfast? He's probably just drinking tea and talking to plants." Alfred shrugged as he got out of bed, America followed.

Cool! Can I pack lunch for him?"

"…Yeah, sure, why not. His own food won't do him any good anyway." Alfred nodded as he wondered why Arthur hasn't died from eating his own food yet.

The two let out a laugh together and as the younger one rushed off to the kitchen, the other started washing up.  
>Little did he knew, that this simple visit would bring much impact to his future.<p>

* * *

><p>Arthur almost dropped the cloth he was wiping his hands with when he saw the two at his door.<p>

"Hey dude, guess who decided to drop by!" Alfred laughed as he waved, America mimicked him.

"…" Arthur stood speechless for once.

"Woa. Alfred, you weren't kidding! He looks just like England!" America exclaimed as he look at Arthur as if he was some priceless artifact.

"Told ya." Alfred grinned, ignoring the killing glare from Arthur.

"Hello, I'm America! It's so nice to meet you." The boy smiled as he offered a hand.  
>"Uh… I'm Arthur." Still a little stunned by the sudden visit, Arthur answered slowly, reaching out to shake America's hand.<p>

The boy looked exactly like how Arthur had remembered him to be.

"You're not planning to burn the kitchen down again, are you?" The moment Arthur had let the two visitors in, Alfred had already noticed the black smoke coming out from the kitchen.  
>Whatever's cooking in the kitchen was probably nothing edible… Hopefully America packed lunch for him too…<p>

"If you're that keen to find out, why don't you go and take a look? While you're at it, go pour us some tea." Arthur scoffed as he sat down on the sofa with America.

"Do it yourself! I'm not your servant you know." Alfred puffed his cheeks up.

"Very well then, if you insist." The Brit shrugged, then smiled smugly. "America, why don't the two of us go make some tea? I'll tell you about the time where Alfred accidentally stepped on a-"

"Where can I find the tea leaves?" Alfred interrupted in a deadpan voice, admitting a record breaking fast defeat.

"Top shelf, all the way to the right. " Arthur smiled sweetly as Alfred felt his eye twitch.

"Do I still get to know what he accidentally stepped on?" America asked when Alfred disappeared into the kitchen, putting on a curious face.

"I'm sorry America, but to be honest, I have no idea what he had stepped on." Arthur shrugged, looking a little apologetic. "Knowing him, the idiot must have accidentally stepped on lots of things every day."

"I bet that's how he fell for you after tripping on something." America giggled as he muttered.

"Pardon?" Arthur didn't catch that.

"Oh, nothing." America smiled innocently. As much as he wanted to help Alfred, some things are meant to be said by the very person himself, and this was definitely one of it.

"By the way, how does this… England person seem like?" Arthur asked, interested to know what America thought of him.

"Umm... He really is the exact replica of you." America nodded to himself.

Well, no surprise there. Arthur thought.

"Really? That is quite the coincidence." Arthur replied, acting surprised. "Alfred had told me about him on his last visit, but I thought he was exaggerating."

"I thought he was exaggerating when he told me about you too! But I guess he's right after all." America smiled.

"Speaking of which, why isn't England with you today?" Arthur asked, guessing the answer in his mind.

"Oh he had to go back to his house for a while, so he can't come. " America's smile wasn't as bright this time.

"…Do you miss him?" Arthur asked, feeling guilty about leaving America alone back then. But there really wasn't anything he could do about it, was there?

"All the time." The latter replied without delay. "Before England found me, I used to live with my animal friends. But after living with England for so long and have someone take care of me all the time, everything I do reminds me of him." He smiled a little helplessly.

"…Must be lonely huh." Arthur sighed quietly. He knew that America would be alone when he was gone, but he never thought that it would be that bad.

Maybe the gap between them had always been more than just the ocean.

"But he'll come back for me."

"Huh?"

"He promised that he'll come back no matter how many time he leaves or how far away he'll be." America replied, his bright smile lightening England's guilt.

"Really? He said that?" he smiled too.

"Yup!" America nodded with much enthusiasm before telling Arthur about how he wrote his own name on England's face and got England to write his name on his hand.

The latter almost melted at how cute it sounded. Why the hell couldn't he remember that happened? How could he forget the week of painful face scrubbing that followed the sweet moment?

"If you ever leave England, will you go back for him then?"

"Definitely!"

The Brit smiled, at the child's innocent, at how ironic the answer was. He didn't exactly come back after the war, did he?

"It's just the sea you know." America blinked his eyes at Arthur. "Even if I can't be there for him in person, my heart and love will always follow him!"

"Just the sea… You really love England don't you?" Arthur asked, smiling when the latter nodded without hesitations.

He was elated to know that the him now was loved by America. But apart from being happy, there was also this odd feeling growing from the bottom of his heart. He shouldn't be having this feeling, since. Well. He was ethnically England. But he just couldn't help but feel…

"Ah… It must be good to have someone love you so much. You just made me jealous of this England." Arthur joked, as he mentally kicked himself for being ridiculous. How could he be jealous of himself?

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that." America chuckled. "Trust me, the person who loves you is closer than you think."

…Ok Arthur did not remember his America to be giving him advice, especially on this topic. It's kind of embarrassing really, the child giving his guardian love advices.

Though as America spoke, the image of a particular moron immediately popped up in his mind. He waved the image away in less a second though, simply because he was sure that the git wouldn't give him a second look if given a choice.

In fact, now that he thought of it… They were always arguing with each other, disagreeing on everything the other party said, and coming up with almost everything to insult the other…

"Arthur? Arthur!"

"Huh- oh, sorry. I kind of zoned out a little." Arthur smiled apologetically, throwing his confusing thoughts behind. All he had to know was that Alfred would never love him. Yup. That's it.

Nothing else.

"It's alright. Just don't overthink things." America giggled. "On a less important note, how long does it take to prepare tea?"

…

Oh right.

Where the hell was Alfred and the tea he was supposed to prepare?

The two of them probably had the same thought as they stood up and walked into the kitchen, solving the mystery of the disappearing hamburger idiot. … and the tea.

When they reached the kitchen, however, they were right in time to see Alfred trudging into the kitchen through the backdoor, carrying a paper bag with him. The latter jumped a little when he saw the two.

"I don't recall having to go to the grocery store to make a simple cup of tea." Arthur remarked sarcastically as he leaned against the fridge, grinning smugly.

"Yeah well I decided that if I have to drink your tea again I would choke and die. So I bought coffee." Alfred replied and took the bag of coffee powder out of the paper bag.

Arthur rolled his eyes.

Americans.

"Just hurry the hell up with tea." He turned to walk out of the kitchen. "Come on America, leave the work to Alfred."

"In a minute." America waved his replied, then turned to Alfred, smiling brightly.

"That's all I can do for you. Remember our promise, hero." He winked before turning around to leave.

"… Never leaving you alone with Arthur again. Never." He never know that the Brit's meanness was contagious.

"By the way Alfred." America paused for a moment and turning to face Alfred, pointed at his own cheeks. Then, leaving a puzzled Alfred behind, hopped to join Arthur.

"…" Alfred instinctively cupped his left cheek with his free hand.

It felt hot.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Hehehe I just love the tiny America in this story he's such an angel X3 Anyway I want to thank you guys for the encouragement and telling me that you didn't forget about me (manly tears were shed while reading your reviews) so here ya go! Extra early update :3 Things won't go so fluffly from the next chapter onwards though. So get mentally prepared._

_Now then... /stares at you with puppy eyes until you give me a review. /bricked._


	21. Don't change anything

Things went out of control since Alfred and America came back from their visit to Arthur's place.

Time skip started happening all over the place, and before Alfred knew it, America was no longer the small boy, he's grown straight into a teenager. England's came and gone several times as the time skip happened, each time looking more surprised to see America grow. Surprised, but happy; his lovely little brother's growing up to be a fine man.

Alfred on the other hand, couldn't help but feel the fear growing in his heart. He was never particularly good at remembering things, but he knew that American's just about reaching the age when he would start thinking about his independence. Knowing it, however, wouldn't change anything. So he waited in painful silence as he prayed for time to pass as slowly as possible.

But time's got things all planned out, and Alfred knew that things were about to turn sour when France showed up in front of them.

"What are you doing here?" Alfred asked, restraining himself from glaring at the guest. Question aside, he knew what France was here for. After all, he could clearly remember France coming to him to talk about being independent.

"Bonjour, my friend." Slightly lifting his hat, France was ignorant to Alfred's obvious annoyance towards him. "Is America home? I have some business to talk to him about."

Alfred raised an eyebrow, half expecting France to comment about the fact that he hard hardly aged compared to America. Then he remembered the long explanation about how 'people of this time frame won't notice any change because of time skips' by Arthur. Alfred had to admit that he didn't understand half of what Arthur was blabbering about, but he figured that it probably meant something along the line of "they are half retarded and won't realize that you are actually a country even though you don't age like a human".

That aside...

"Follow me." Holding the door for France to enter the house, Alfred had to once again restrain himself from shutting the door right in the French man's face. Even though he really wanted to change things, even though he would rather eat Arthur's deadly cooking for the rest of his life than to let France in, there's nothing he could do. What must happen will happen. That and the fact that Arthur would probably kill him if he try anything funny.

With Arthur's threat constantly ringing in his mind, Alfred managed to bring France to America's study room in one piece.

"France, you are surprisingly on time for once." Greeting his guest with a smile, America said as he motioned for France to enter the study.

"Looks like eyebrow did affect you with his foul tongue after all." Sighing, France shrugged it off and entered the study.

Seeing that his job here was done, Alfred was just about to leave and see Arthur when America stopped him.

"... Alfred, may we have a talk with you?" America asked as his temporary-guardian-of-some-sort paused in his tracks and looked back at him.

Then, pointing a finger at himself, Alfred asked with a confused look. "Me?"

America nodded and pointed his hand towards the room. Knowing that this was probably something that he couldn't avoid, Alfred sighed and entered the room, taking a seat beside Francis. America closed the door behind him and moved to sit in his seat, facing the other two.

"Simply put, I've decided to go to war with England."

* * *

><p>Arthur was tending to his garden when the little fairy almost literally bang into him as she rushed to deliver her message. Skidding to a halt in the air, the fairy struggled to speak between her frantic gasping for air as she made a mental note not to rush like that again.<p>

Seeing this, Arthur smiled helplessly and held out a hand. The fairy immediately plopped herself on his hand and rested there, resting her tired wings as she took in deep breaths.

"There's really no need to hurry you know. You might just swallow a bug in your way." Arthur joked with a slight smile, chuckling a bit when the fairy managed to take the energy to roll her eyes at him.

Both of them knew that she's way too small to swallow a bug. Bump into one maybe, but definitely not eat on by accident.

"Now's not the time for jokes!" having caught her breath, the fairy shot up and protested with knitted eyebrows. "Arthur, America had-"

"It must be tiring for you to fly this fast. Come on in, I'll get you a strawberry." Taking the gardening gloves off, he nodded towards the house, inviting the fairing in.

"But you don't get it! He's-"

"I guess I'll make myself a cup of tea too." He smiled to himself and gave the garden a glance. "That's quite the progress for a single day."

"Arthur!" Having lost her patience, the fairy flew right beside the ash blonde's ear and shouted, hoping to get his attention this time.

Arthur simply stopped after that. He didn't continue to walk, nor did he talk. He just stood on the spot quietly, the once carefree smile turned into a rueful one. The fairy did not talk either as she simply rested on Arthur's shoulder, silently keeping Arthur company.

She knew that she had done something horrible. She understood that it was cruel of her to force him to face what he wanted to avoid. But still... She lowered her head with a sigh, both guilty and sorry for Arthur.

"I know." Arthur finally broke the heart breaking silence between the two. The fairy looked up at him with wide shocked eyes. He knew? From who?

"I knew it from the start and I heard it when America told Alfred about his decision." Fishing his cell phone out from his pocket, Arthur showed it to the fairy, the other soon understood what happened.

At the back of the cell phone was a black mark the size of a thumbnail, shaped like the left wing of a butterfly. There's no doubt that it was another one of Arthur's spell. She's seen Arthur used it before, and the spell basically one-way connects two objects or people. The receiver would carry the left wing mark, and the giver would carry the right wing mark. The receiver would be able to share senses with the giver, and see or/and hear what the giver sees and hear. The giver, however, would not be share what the receiver see or hear. She didn't need much thinking to know who the right wing mark was with.

The question was, when?

"I placed it on his cell phone when i had the chance to and gave it to him when he first visited." As if he had read her mind, the Brit started explaining slowly. "You're right. Even though He doesn't need my help, even though I know that fact better than anyone. I still can't help it but try to protect him quietly."

Of course, Alfred haven't quite needed his help, but his little spell did prove helpful when he managed to hear the full conversation between America, Alfred and France. To be honest, he was.. pleasant surprised.

Arthur lowered his head, smiling to himself.

"...Are you going to do anything?" The fairy asked carefully in a soft tone.

"Of course I am. Come on, I still want my cup of tea." Lifting his head again to smile at the fairy, he started walking towards his house, carrying the fella on his shoulder. "There's no use in doing anything." He muttered between the two of them.

"What must happen, will happen."

* * *

><p><em>I told you guys to be mentally prepared.I totally did. It's so painful to write this urrg. cringes/ _

_Reviews= faster update (I already have the next chapter ready. /cough/)_


	22. Don't pick on his eyebrows all the time

Alfred sat on his chair, stoned and absolutely stunned. He had seen this coming and was constantly reminding himself not to over-react. He was even mentally reminding himself to act absolutely normal as he walked into the study and took his seat. But all preparations failed and he ended up slamming his fists on the study desk as he shot up from his seat.

"No! You can't do this!" Before he could do anything about his impulsivity, the words had already escaped from his mouth.

Reacting to Alfred's 'violent reaction', France inched away while still in his chair, staring at Alfred as if the latter was a crazy drunk man. America, on the other hand, sighed and lowered his head to look down at the desk. He had somewhat expected Alfred to disapprove his decision.

"…" Having finally realized that he had accidentally tried to change things, Alfred immediately put his hands back on his sides, and then sat back down. Nope, can't start changing things now or Arthur will kill him.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Alfred decided to try and fix his mistake. "I mean, are you sure of your decision? Do you want to rethink it to double check?"

"Alfred, mon ami," France spoke. "I'm sure that America here is big enough to make his own decisions. Right decisions."

"How right is it then?" Alfred asked, looking at America, the other lifted his head almost reluctantly. "Are you really sure that you won't regret it?" He asked the questions that he wished someone had asked him before.

"I'm sure I'll regret it." America replied almost immediately. "England's the very first person who's taught me lots of things. I've learnt how to love, care, and miss someone. But he's also taught me to be a great country, how to listen to my people and decide on what's best for them.

I don't expect you to understand it, but please know that I've taken things into lots of consideration. My final decision might not be the best, and I'm sure there'll be a day when I blame myself for being stupid. I'm sure I'll hurt England and he might hate me forever. But…"

"You still love him no matter what, right?" The French man spoke with a knowing smile.

Both Americans turned to look at him, surprised.

"Big brother is not a bad person you know. I didn't offer to help you fight against Angleterre just because I want to kick his ass." …Alright maybe that's was his original intention.

"Angleterre might not admit it, but we all know that's he's been a loner for long enough. Your existence made a huge difference to him and he's changed so much since then. Everyone except Angleterre knows that you are taking care of him as much as he's taking care of you.

But if you think that things must move on, no one will stop you. As long as you promise to love Angleterre as much as you've always loved him, big brother here will help you till the end." France ended his comment with a wink, smiling.

…Alfred was not sure where that came from. Since when was France even capable of such thoughtful words?!

"I promise." America nodded with much determination. "Even if England decides to hate me forever, I'll be there for him."

Alfred decided to keep the fact that he grew up to be a nuisance who's always annoying the hell out of Arthur away from America; he didn't want to discourage the young lad.

"Very well then, now that we are all certain of America's decision and more or less support it," Clapping his hands together, France turned to look between the two Americans. "America, don't you have something you want to ask your dear friend here?"

"Uh? Me?"

"Oh, right." Reminded by France, America turned to Alfred. "The main reason I've called you here is to ask if you're willing to join me in the war."

…

To what?!

"Join the war?" Alfred's eyes widened.

"Don't worry, it's completely up to you." Seeing Alfred's extreme reaction all over again, America quickly added. France just sighed and smiled to himself.

"Why do you even need my help anyway?" They can't be short of people for the army right?

"Well…Since you know England as well or even better than I do, I thought that you would be a great advisor…" Looking away, America scratched the back of his head.

… Alfred wasn't sure if he should be happy that the young him was so smart, or shocked that he's being asked to literally betray England.

"I'm happy to know that you think so highly of me, but I'm sorry. I don't think it's such a good idea for me to join a war that's not mine." Alfred smiled apologetically; he's been through his war. "Besides, just like you, I have the person I want to be there for." He smiled at America.

The latter smiled back, certain of who Alfred was talking about.

"Very well then. I respect your decision." He nodded his reply. "Since you won't be joining me, I suppose you'll be leaving to find that person?"

"Is that alright with you?" Alfred asked, smiling warmly.

"Oh, I'll be fine. Pretty much used to being alone anyway." America shrugged jokingly. "France will keep me company for now, won't you?"

"Oui, even though I prefer pretty ladies, I guess you will do." France winked as both Americans took a step back instinctively.

"You are not allowed to touch him at all, you hear me?" Alfred warned. "This is a direct order from… Uhh… his guardian… of some sort…"

"Fine, have it your way. I'm not particularly interested in something of Angleterre's taste." Flipping his hair to one side, France remarked in a high-and-mighty way.

Alfred had to take a deep breath to stop himself from throwing a book in France's face.

"Don't mind him. We'll be fine." America laughed. "Jokes aside, you better get going. It's been quite some time since you've last visited that person, hasn't it?"

"Yeah… He'll probably be all grumpy and grouchy again." Alfred joked, and exchanging a nod with American, said together.

"But always waiting for me with his burnt scones."

* * *

><p><p>

The fairy was just about to ask why England brewed two cups of tea when there was a knock on the front door. Dropping the promised strawberry on the table, Arthur wiped his hands dry with his apron before taking it off, and rushed to open the door.

Behind the door, was the same annoying git who's too dense for his own good.

"…You didn't bring the other me with you this time, did you?" With the prior experience of America's surprise visit, Arthur tilted his head to look behind Alfred, then heaved a sigh of relief when he confirmed that Alfred was alone.

"Nah, I won't be seeing them for quite a while." Alfred shrugged and raised the basket in his hand. "The other me made me bring some fruits to you, so can I please go in now?"

Receiving the basket from Alfred, Arthur moved aside for Alfred to enter as he checked the basket's contents. Just like Alfred had mentioned, the basket was filled with fruits. But a closer examination of the fruits got Arthur pissed in no time.

Some bloody idiot's drawn eyebrows on every single fruit in there. Even the bloody grapes. Grapes. Arthur can't even begin on how annoyed/amazed he was.

Picking a stray orange up in preparation to throw it at the bloody moron, Arthur noticed a white envelop at the bottom of all the fruits. Digging it up, he flipped the envelop to the back to discover some writings.

"Arthur! Where did you put the coffee powder I bought? There's no way I'm drinking your disgusting tea!" Alfred shouted from the kitchen, interrupting Arthur as he read the writings.

"Tch- I threw them away! Drink some tea for once! It's ten times better than coffee!" Stuffing the envelop back into the basket, Arthur shouted back as he marched into the kitchen.

"I'd rather die out of thirst than drink your tea." Making a disgusted expression, Alfred commented as he picked a cup up and started drinking.

"Don't say that and drink it at the same time!" The Brit scoffed as he snatched the cup back, blushing just the slightest bit. "At least grab the right cup!"

That simple sentence sent yet another person blushing— blushing? What blushing? His face was just a little red from the heat. That's all! It's not like he particularly mind or anything… Really!

"Yuck! Don't put your cup anywhere!" Quickly reacting to Arthur's words, Alfred grabbed his cup of tea and started washing his mouth with tea. "What if I get affected by you and get huge eyebrows too?!"

"MY EYEBROWS ARE FINE!"

Quietly observing the two while biting on her strawberry, the little fairy can't help but giggle to herself.

Two extremely dense idiots.

Now that's really something to look forward to.

* * *

><p><em>I hope this update is considered quick enough 0w0.<br>I'm such a failure I'm supposed to make you guys feel sad. OTL I'm so sorry I'm just. Fuuu. /flips table  
><em>

_Still.. Please review. /bows_


	23. Don't doubt him

_Short chapter because I already have the next chapter ready. Well. More or less. _  
><em>So sorry this took so long. My exams just ended and I'm writing this while having a fever at the same time. <em>  
><em>Also it took forever for me to come up with the content for this chapter, but I like how it turned out. <em>

_hopefully you guys like it too. Please review for the last few times. _

* * *

><p>"Hey… Artie, remember the key you told me about?" Alfred asked out of the blue as he poked at the burnt toast in the plate before him. Nope. Not eating that. "You know; the one we need to get home?" He pushed the plate of toast away.<p>

"What about it?" The latter hung his apron up on the rack and joined Alfred at the table. He frowned, noticing the untouched toast, but decided to keep his comments to himself this time.

"What exactly is it?" He looked up at Arthur, maintaining eye contact. The past few days with Arthur felt normal, way too normal, and he's long had the feeling that Arthur was hiding something from him.

"…" Arthur paused, looking uneasy for just a second, before resuming his normal expression. "Why are you suddenly asking about that?"

Alfred furrowed his eyebrows; Arthur's definitely hiding something.

"Never mind why, just tell me what the key is. What exactly are we waiting for?" He asked again, his tone slowly becoming demanding. Why was Arthur hiding things from him?

The Brit turned his eyes to the plate of toast, breaking eye contact. "You'll know when the time is right." Picking the plate up, he stood up from the chair and walked to the sink.

Silence dominated the room for a few seconds, only to be broken by Alfred's question.

"It's something to do with the war, isn't it?" Alfred's voice was cold.

Arthur didn't reply.

"There's no 'key' at all. You just didn't want us to go back yet." He stood up and walked towards Arthur. The latter stopped the washing and looked up at Alfred, emerald green eyes slowly losing its cool.

"You want us—you want me to see the war with my own eyes. So that I can feel guilty and sorry, so that I will treat you better after this, no?" Alfred interrogated, standing right in front of Arthur and staring down at him.

If he was right, then Arthur's made a brilliant move. Because he will be guilty, and he definitely will feel sorry for Arthur; he'll most probably hate himself for hurting Arthur like that.

But the very thought of Arthur lying to him for anything was just—

"Is that really how you see me?" Arthur growled; the stare turned into a glare. "Do you really think that I would want to see the war in front of me again? Exactly how thick can you be?!" He bellowed, eyebrows furrowed and eyes filled with anger.

Alfred was taken aback by the reaction received, but he refused to back down or admit that he was wrong. If things weren't the way he thought it was, then why was Arthur hiding it? What was there to lie about?

"Just as about as thick as your lies! Why won't you tell me the truth then? Why are you even hiding things from me?" He raised his voice as well.

What he didn't notice, was how hurt Arthur looked when the word 'lies' was mentioned.

"Am I obliged to tell you everything? What are you now? Do you honestly think that the world revolves around you, the 'hero'? Well then here's something new, keep your nose out of my business!" Arthur protested, shouting his words right at Alfred.

Alfred had to admit, for a moment, he was stunned by Arthur's words. Not because they were loud, not because how much it made sense, but because of how mad it sounded. But that didn't account for anything. He too was beyond frustration.

"Fine! Have it your way!" He shouted, and in a rage, turned and bolted out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"And don't come back!" Arthur bellowed, but there was no one left to hear him. The whole house was suddenly plunged into a suffocating silence as Arthur fell to his knees.

Alfred wasn't wrong; he had the right to know what was going on. But he had his reasons to keep things hidden; he too was afraid and desperately trying to escape from something.

_Drip_

What hurt him, what brought him down, was the fact that Alfred doubted him. Being called a liar by the person who he was risking everything for was perhaps all that he could take.

_Drip_

Why. Why couldn't Alfred ever stay with something till the end? Why was he always doubting and objecting him? Why. Why was he always walking away?

_"Where did I go wrong?" _

The ash-blonde sat among his tears, reflecting and blaming himself.

_"Why am I always alone in the end?"_


	24. Don't lose him

Alfred didn't know where he was running to. All he knew was that mess of feelings felt like dead weight on his chest, suffocating him and making every step he took extra heavy.

There was frustration; he is frustrated at Arthur for lying to him, for refusing to tell him everything. Why couldn't Arthur see that he wanted to know everything because he cared about him? How could he possibly protect Arthur when he couldn't figure out the danger?

There was guilt; he shouldn't have shouted at Arthur. He shouldn't have left Arthur alone. The war must have been painful for Arthur too…Perhaps there really was a key. He really shouldn't have doubted the Brit after all…

There was of course, worry.

What is Arthur doing right now? He must be mad, definitely. Would he feel hurt? What if he's crying? …Knowing that person for so long, the possibility of that was pretty high. Maybe he should run back right now and apologize to Arthur. Yes, that's exactly what he should do. Didn't he promise himself that he wouldn't let Arthur get hurt again?

Alfred stopped running at the irony of him swearing to protect Arthur, but ended up being the one hurting Arthur.

"…Man I really suck." Alfred rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, as he spun around and started running in the direction of Arthur's house.

What greeted him, however, was an empty house.

Running around in the house and checking every corner of it, Alfred started to worry when he couldn't find Arthur anywhere. It's not like there's a need to worry though; it's Arthur we're talking about. But if there's the slightest chance of Arthur getting injured, Alfred will probably get stabbed by his own guilt. He's made a promise, and he planned on keeping it.

"...Never making promises again. Ever." Sighing to himself, he ran out into the forest, shouting Arthurs name at every tree.

* * *

><p><p>

The dark evening set in sooner that day than any other, and droplets of rain fell from the dark sky, soaking the ground.

Alfred sat on a slope, hidden by the trees as he looked down at the scene before him. The ice cold rain pelted on his head, slowly drenching him. But the cold was nothing compared to the one that was slowly growing in his heart. He was unable to find Arthur after all the shouting and searching, but he did find himself in front of what he had been avoiding all these time.

The war between England and America had started, and it's happening right before him.

Just 200 years ago. He stood down there, and did the exact same thing.

Now that he thought of it, how did he feel when he was down there? Guilty? Sad? Depressed? Whatever it was, he was definitely not happy. How could he? He aimed his gun at the very person who raised him. He bit the hand that fed him.

"Nostalgic, isn't it?"

Reacting to the voice, Alfred straightened his back in shock and turned around almost unwillingly. The person standing behind him was none other than Arthur, holding the saddest smile possible. Alfred was immediately overwhelmed by emotions once again.

Half of him wanted to leap forward and hug Arthur, apologize for what he had done, and just tell him how relieved he was to see him looking alright.

But the other half of him, the half that caught sight of the tears rolling down Arthur's cheeks, joining the rain droplets and soaking his cloak, that half of him kept him pinned to the ground, suffocating from guilt.

"Never thought that I'll see this again, live and in HD." He joked as he settled on the grass patch beside Alfred.

"After trying all I could to avoid and forget about it."

"..." Without a reply, Alfred turned back and stared at the battlefield. The crowd of red, blue and white look so blurred to him. His tears got the better of his vision.

Since when did he start crying as well?

Silent took over after that, the two had their eyes on the battlefield. On the teen with his gun down, lost and almost remorseful. On the male who finally broke down, crying in the rain. Everything was the same.

England didn't shoot him this time either. Alfred sighed. Of course he didn't. It's history. History cannot be changed.

"…Say." Alfred hugged his knees and kept his focus on a lone strand grass near his foot.

"Why didn't you shoot me?" He asked as he poked at the grass, too guilty to face Arthur himself. Especially not when the one thing that the both of them tried so hard to forget was being dug out and thrown right in their faces.

"Hmm? I don't know…" Arthur sounded unsure. "How can I possibly shoot or hurt the person I love the most dearly?"

"… I… "Alfred tucked his head into his knees as guilt filled up every bit of him. He did it. He did not only aim his gun at the person who taught him how to use it, he also managed to hurt him. But… Even so…

"I… Even though I aimed my gun at you…"

"And abandoned me, left me crying alone in the rain." Arthur added

"…"

"You also betrayed me, and literally broke my heart-"

"But!" Alfred interrupted him as he looked up, almost shouting. If Arthur was to continue listing the things, he might just lose the bit of courage to say what he wanted to say.

"Look, you might not believe what I'm going to say after…" Alfred looked down at the field, which was now a lot emptier, and pointed at it. "That. But you're the greatest guardian I've ever had." He finally said it, forgetting that Arthur was the only guardian he's ever had.

"I'm really happy to hear you say that, but I really doubt that." Arthur shrugged and shook his head a little.

"If I was that good, why would you want to leave me? I must have done something wrong, somewhere. Sometimes, I would start asking myself where I could have possibly gone wrong. But I ended up laughing at myself every single time. So what if I manage to find my mistake? History cannot be changed." He smiled ruefully. "Perhaps, if I was a little better though, you wouldn't have doubted me."

No.

That's wrong.

Alfred knew that Arthur was wrong. Arthur was perfect, and he will always be perfect. It wasn't Arthur's fault. It was… It was…

"Me."

"Huh?"

"It's my fault. I. Like. I-I just. I didn't-" Alfred stuttered as he struggled with his words. How can he possibly say it?

For a few moments, Arthur just sat in expecting silence as he looked at Alfred, patiently waiting for the second half of the reply. Alfred on the other hand struggled to get his thought right, desperately trying to covey his feelings with words.

"I just- It's not your fault. From the first day I've met you till the last, you will always be perfect in my eyes. I can't think of another person I'd love forever with no regrets other than you. And even though I may have hurt you and pointed a gun at you and did some other stupid idiotic stuff that got you in pain, just!"

Waving his hands around frantically as he went on with his eyes on the ground, he made a mistake lifting his head and made eye contact with Arthur. Immediately, his mind was completely blank.

Arthur looked… Bewildered. His eyes were wide open, mouth ajar and looking puzzled. But Alfred knew better when he saw the pair of emerald green eyes go teary again.

"I just…" Alfred repeated, totally lost. The surge or energy and motivation to get things right were gone as soon as they came, and that left him drooping his shoulders as his mind raced to find a way and fix things.

…

Making up for the sudden loss of words, Alfred did the only thing his malfunctioning brain could think of.

Bending forward, he pulled Arthur into a tight hug.

"Just know that I really, really love you." He blurted out, eyes shut and arms wrapped around Arthur, as if he was holding something of the upmost importance, as if he was afraid to lose him again.

"And I am so, so sorry. I am sorry for the times that I've hurt you, the times that I left you alone, and the times I've made you cry. Even if you decide to hate me forever from now on, even if you never ever want to see me again. Please just know that I've loved you from the start, and I'll love you forever." He confessed, now or never, right?

Will Arthur push him away?

Who knew?

All Alfred was sure of was that Arthur had every single reason on earth to hate him, to never every forgive him. But for that small and almost miserable chance of Arthur forgiving him, he was ready to do anything.

He almost had a heart attack when he felt Arthur's hand land on his head. The fear of Arthur rejecting him, despite the mental preparations, was still eating him from inside. But the fear went as fast as it came when Arthur started ruffling Alfred's hair instead.

"Idiot." Arthur felt himself smiling; his heart felt so warm despite it being soaking cold on the outside.

"I loved you enough not to shoot you. So what makes you think I'll suddenly change my mind and hate you?" He answered as he hugged back, enjoying the other's presence. It's been such a long time since he hugged Alfred.

"Dude, you have no idea how glad I am to hear that." Alfred heaved a sigh of relief, but didn't let go of the Brit. Being with the violent one for so long, Alfred found himself missing the Arthur that he knew a lot more than he thought he did.

"Trust me, I have a pretty good idea." Arthur rolled his eyes, grinning a little.

"Well. Now that that's over, let's get out of this time already. You've caused enough damage." Arthur scoffed as Alfred looked up at him, obviously a little confused.

"Wait. Wait wait wait. Hold it right there." He lifted a hand to interrupt Arthur's words as he sat back straight. "So... Is there actually a key- don't get it wrong. I'm not doubting you! I'm just... lost."

"Of course there bloody is one. Why the hell would I still be here if there isn't a key?" Arthur couldn't decide between glaring at Alfred for his stupidity, or laughing at how confused he looked.

"...And the key would be...?" Alfred heaved a sigh of relief; things were finally falling into pieces, and he could finally go home.

Without speaking a word, Arthur stood up, snapped his fingers together and pointed down at the battle field. There, lying in the mud and rain, was a single gun that stood out among the others.

... Alfred groaned and rolled his eyes. Of course. It was so obvious.

"Well? Don't just sit there and frown. Aren't you eager to go home?" Amazed that Alfred didn't just roll down the slope in excitement, Arthur raised a brow and offering Alfred a hand, pulled the latter to his feet.

"Well actually... Can we stay for so say... one more hour?" Alfred asked as he dusted his jacket, obviously reminded of something.

Arthur looked up at him, lost. "Huh? What else do you what to do?"

"Fulfil my role as the hero." With a grin, he bent down to give Arthur a quick and surprise peck on the cheek.

"Just- wait here. I'll be right back." He waved as he started running down the slope, leaving an extremely flushed Brit behind, a hand covering a specific spot on his cheek.

"…Bloody hell." He smiled to himself, contented.

* * *

><p><em>yes finally i am going to be done with this QwQ<br>Gosh that sense of achievement is just flooding me right now.  
>hope you've enjoyed it, and there's... probably 3 + 1 more chapters left<br>Please look forward to it~  
><em>


	25. I am not a chapter

**HAPPY EXTREMELY LATE APRIL FOOL~!**

Yes yes I know it's long past April fool day but it's still April fool week. Which means I still get to pull a prank or two :'3

Also I am not sorry if you feel cheated. /bricked/

Ok i might as well take this chance to talk about my experience on this site because i sort of need this to look like it has a few thousand words. So Umm...

I guess i should start by thanking you guys then.

I mean, well, I write because someone is there to read. Which means, I write because you, yes you who are reading this, you bother to read my nonsense.

Which brings me to my point that i should probably apologize for being so horrible at writing. I've had my beta chase me around, ordering me to start reading up for better vocab and grammar. Well I hope that it's obvious that i didn't listen to my beta. /still not sorry.

Wow ok it is actually hard to write 1000 words with no story line or anything this is starting to get awkward.

Umm.

Do you want me to sing a song or something.

Ok nevermind let me talk about why i write so much USUK it's a essential question.

I started writing stories since i was 7, those were original stories, of course. I would write stories of adventure, love, tragedy, and this particular one about how a fat hamster couldn't stop eating.

I never thought that I would start writing fanfics. In fact I have tried writing for other fandoms, but it didn't work. It's just so hard to commit myself to it.

And then I found Hetalia and the OTP chose me, enslaved me and here I am, working as a slave.

It's not that bad it gets rewarding when people actually see your work i guess. So yeah, posting my work here on this site is actually one of the things i don't regret doing.

When I posted my first story up here... On christmas I think, I did not expect anyone to read it at all. But it turned out that people bothered reading and even reviewing my story... And that's the start of endless painful nights where I struggle to update the fics.

Honestly now I did not expect it to be so hard to write long stories. Sticking to oneshots. Definitely.

Ok if you are still reading this you have wasted like 5 mins of your time or more. To thank you for that, here's something from a secret fic I was working on:

* * *

><p>"Ivan!" Alfred shouted across the hall, battering a monster with his gun barrel at the same time. The hall was in total chaos, filled with the brainless charred monsters everywhere. Alfred wasn't even sure where the jokers managed to get this many of them.<p>

Ivan and he put up a strong fight, but they were being separated by the pouring load of charreds and by the time Alfred noticed it, they were

at two different ends of the hall. Ivan was near the entrance and he was near the stairs.

"Would it be fine if we do not chat now? I am a little busy." Ivan shouted back, actually sounding excited.

Alright, at least he knew that Ivan was holding on.

"I found stairs here!"

"Then do proceed ahead, your queen is waiting, no?" Ivan smiled and waved as he swiped a charred off its feet effortlessly, the never wavering smile on his face made it looked almost easy.

... The king of Clubs indeed.

"Dude, I can't just leave ya here!" Alfred dodged a charred just in time and kicked it in the guts. "Can't you come over?"

"... There is a way." Ivan's harmless smile was suddenly filled with malice, somehow causing the charreds around him to all freeze, stricken with fear. Alfred on the other hand had his view blocked by the enemies and noticed nothing strange except for the motionless crowd near Ivan.

"Mr Alfred~ I hope you do well against cold!" Ivan warned with a huge smile on his face as he raised his staff.

"Wha-"

Before Alfred could react to that comment, Ivan had already slammed the end of the staff to the ground, creating a crack on the marble floor as the large oval red jewel that sat on the other end of the staff started glowing, illuminating the hall with a bright red light.

"With the heart of Ice and wrath of storm, I summon you for your help, General Winter!" Ivan announced loudly as the light suddenly grew at a rapid speed, both in radius and brightness. Alfred shielded his eyes and squatted down.

It was a wise choice too. Within seconds, the red light was gone, replaced by an icy blue. But just when Alfred thought it was safe to open his eyes, a blizzard started in the room itself. He quickly shuffled between the Charred and managed to take cover behind the unnecessarily thick curtains that decorated the place.

Outside the curtains, the blizzard circled around the room, covering every single inch of it except for the corner where Alfred hid. The roaring winds came so fast that it started forming an ice cold tornado. The charreds didn't stand a chance against the monstrosity and were immediately frozen solid, then broken into fine ash by the tornado.

Within seconds, it was over, and the wind died in a scream.

Welcomed by the silence, Alfred poked his head out of the curtains and felt his jaw dropped when he found the hall ground carpeted in coal dark ash. On the far end of the hall, Ivan heaved a sigh of relieve and with his usual warm smile, waved at Alfred.

"Yaa, sorry for the wait. We can move on now!" He swiftly walked through the ash, joining Alfred on the other end.

"Dude, you seriously rock." Alfred gave Ivan a High 5.

"Compliments get you nowhere, Alfred. But it's very much appreciated. Shall we continue?" Ivan was really enjoying this; it was much more interesting and thrilling than sitting in front of paper work.

Alfred promptly nodded and the two kings rushed up the stairs, to a new level of danger.

In the empty hall, a silver tornado started up on its own, growing taller as it sucked the ashes to its eye. When all the ashes were trapped in its eye, the wind ceased. In it's original spot stood a man, distinct with his pair of ruby red eyes, pointed tail, and devil ears growing out of his silver-white hair. In his hand held a huge cloth bag, bulging and filled with ash.

"Keshesheshe, the fun's just begun." he grinned, showing two rows of pearl white pointed teeth. "Let's see how far the two fools can go."

After all, the game of chess never truly starts, till the queen's being featured, no?

* * *

><p>WELL THAT WAS IT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING TRICKED XD<br>Also if you are interested on that secret fic, do tell me!  
>Or else I am never gonna get the motivation to finish it. Ever.<p> 


	26. Don't keep him waiting

~Don't stop listening~

England sat slouched in his sofa, his hair dripping wet from the rain and his drenched coat soaked the sofa couch. The cold cup of tea on the table in front of him played as his only company in the empty and dark room.

It was over.

He shut his eyes forcefully as he repeated the sentence in his mind. It's over. The war's passed. The pain had dealt its damage on him, now it's time to move on.

But moving on was never really easy, be it one day after, or a few hundred years later.

"You'll catch a cold you know."

A familiar voice sounded in the supposed empty room as an empty towel was thrown over England's head. The latter's eyes widened in surprise as he instinctively looked up.

But a pair of hands rested on his head and covered his sight with the towel, hinting that the surprise visitor refused to be seen.

Not because he fear being identified; the voice was way too obvious, but because there probably wasn't a need for him to actually see the visitor.

England stayed still as the visitor started drying his hair… quite clumsily, to be honest. He didn't mind though, the warmth from the pair of hands was comforting enough.

The silence continued between the two of them, and all that could be heard was the rain outside the house and the soft ruffling of the tower. Of course, silence was meant to be broken.

"… America… Or Alfred?" England muttered in a volume just loud enough for the two of them to hear.

He could feel the hands on his head stopped moving for a moment as the visitor reacted to his question; in shock, perhaps. But the ruffling action soon resumed, as if nothing had happened before.

"Neither." The visitor's replied with a slight chuckle, surprising the latter.

Neither?

"Well then. Who are you?" He asked, becoming slightly curious.

"The United States of America, or USA for short." Arthur could hear it, the visitor was smiling when he replied.

He sighed and closed his eyes, smiling helplessly as he gently shook his head. "So that's what you're called now? But you are also Alfred, no?"

"…" Alfred completely stopped his action this time, caught unprepared by England's questions. "How… When did you notice it?"

"The moment I found America, of course. I'm not an idiot you know. Besides, anyone with common sense would notice how similar you two looked." England rolled his eyes and pointed to the empty spot beside him. "If you're here to talk, at least sit down."

By now, Alfred was already feeling 50% awkward, 50% amazed and 100% like a moron. So all these time, England knew?!

Man, that's just. That's just embarrassing.

"… Or would you prefer to stand for a whole hour or two?" Seeing that the person behind him wasn't moving, England turned to look up at him with a raised brow.

"R-right." Snapping out of his own thoughts, Alfred nodded and sat on the sofa, beside the drenched Brit. "Do you want to… Um… Change first? Your clothes are still dripping wet you know."

He had no idea why that sounded so awkward, but he won't want to risk England getting a cold.

"…" Instead of replying, the ash blonde turned to face the American, and with an expressionless face, stared at Alfred.

"W-what?" The latter stuttered as he instinctively leaned back and further away from England. He's pretty sure he was blushing a little, but that's out of awkwardness and absolutely nothing else. Nope.

"Pfft-"England, in reaction to Alfred's questioning, dropped his head and fought hard stifling his laughter. That only resulted in an even more flushed Alfred as he figured out what exactly was going on.

"Don't laugh!" He protested, but could only watch as England burst into chains of laughter in front of him.

…

Now's probably a good time to curl into a ball, face a wall, and start growing mushrooms of depression and shame.

But, admits the shouting and blushing, was a relieved smile. He had managed, in a not so ideal way, to make England laugh. That's considered quite the achievement to be proud of.

So he sat there, feeling a lot less awkward now, as he waited for England to finish his fits of laughter. On the other hand, England found it extremely hard to stop laughing.

Fortunately, after a few deep breathing exercise, he managed to regain his composure- in fact, he felt more at home and relaxed than before.

"…Are we finally done laughing?" Alfred asked, finding it a little funny himself now.

England nodded, and took a deep breath again to prevent any more sudden fits of laughter. He just didn't expect Alfred to have such a hilarious expression, and each time he looked at the American, he got reminded of it.

"So, 'United States of America', huh?" Steering back to the topic, he asked, still grinning a little.

"Y-yeah…" Alfred replied, carefully observing England's expression and was ready to change the topic should there be another sign of a storm.

Hearing the reply, England sighed again. Not a troubled one, but a relieved one. "At least that means you survived facing the world alone."

"Of course I survived." Alfred replied without hesitations. "I wasn't alone, you know."

Hearing this, England felt as if a knot had tied itself on his heart. Alfred wasn't alone…? So… Someone else took his place huh… Who would that be? France? Spain?

"Don't bother guessing." Seeing the cloudy expression all of a sudden, Alfred figured that England's probably thinking too much again. "I was- I am accompanied by a lot of people, especially you."

"Me?" England asked, wide eyes showing a glint of surprise.

"Yes you." He nodded, smiling. "Whatever's happened has happened, and I didn't come all the way from my world here to give you false hope.

I am here to tell you the truth. That even after a few hundred years, we are still side by side. The…" The word 'war' was tied around Alfred's tongue; he knew all too well that the word meant pain.

"It's alright, whatever's happened, has happened." Sensing the doubt, England smiled gently.

"...Well, yeah. The war only made me independent, but it did not tear us apart. Sure we argue a lot after that and you're always throwing things at me…"

Oh shit he's giving the Brit ideas wasn't he?

"Hmm? What's wrong? Go on." England smiled… a little too brightly.

Alfred gulped.

"Even though we disagree and get on each other's nerves, we still fought, laughed, cried, and did lots of ridiculous things together."

Like getting eaten by a book, only to find them trapped in a bloody piece of memory.

"So… Don't look at the war as an end point; take it as a new beginning. Keep smiling, walk forward, and remember to dry your hair when it's wet. Alright?" He asked, offering his brightest and most innocent smile.

"… I honestly thought I raised you better in consoling people." England's remark was as good as pouring a bucket of ice cold water on Alfred.

Maybe he should have gone ahead and start growing mushrooms at a corner after all.

"But…" He sighed and reaching out, ruffled Alfred's hair gently. "This will have to do." He smiled.

"Thank you, for making me laugh and telling me all of these. I'll be fine, so you better run along now. Don't keep the 'me' from your time waiting."

Alfred beamed too, and standing up, gave England a big warm hug.

"Wait for me, and don't give up. Alright?"

"Don't keep me waiting for too long, you git.

* * *

><p><em>AN: I almost died laughing while writing this. Honestly now sometimes Alfred's the best stress relief ever. __Well this marks the 2nd or 3rd last chapter of the story._

_But reviews are still all very much appreciated! :3_

_this story currently has 229 reviews._

_Break 260 by the end of the last chapter, and I'll throw in a blooper chapter, which is a compilation of all the parts i had to remove and rewrite because it's too crazy/crack. Until then, see ya~ and have a nice day!_


	27. Don't stop hoping

Arthur was just about to go look for Alfred when the latter came running, waving at him with his signature bright smile.

He sighed at how childish it all seemed, but waved back nonetheless. Its Alfred after all, what else could he expect?

"So? Mind explaining what you meant by 'fulfilling your roles as a hero'?" Arthur huffed as he folded his arms, demanding an explaining for suddenly dashing off like that.

"Nufufu, just making things easier for myself this time." Alfred chortled, deciding that it's better not to tell the Brit the details.

"…Right." Arthur replied after a short pause, getting the feeling that Alfred's hiding something from him… Probably something he shouldn't know then.

"Enough of the chatting, let's get going." Changing the topic, Alfred pointed to the gun Arthur was holding, their ticket out of this place. "I'm dying for a hamburger."

Arthur felt his eye twitch in annoyance. They were finally going back to their time slot, and all he could think about was his burger?!

"If you're that hungry, how about I give you a knuckle sandwich right now?" He smiled maliciously as he shook his fist at Alfred.

"Aw come on. Don't tell me you're not hungry." Alfred rebutted, pouting a little.

"Of course I am." Arthur rolled his eyes. "But the first thing we should do is get things settled. You've been here for almost a month now. That's at least 2 weeks in our time if we're lucky. The least we could do is come up with a proper explanation for what happened."

"We can always discuss about that over dinner. At Ma**onalds, of course." Alfred gave the Brit a thumb up.

Arthur's seriously considering giving the other a punch in the face now.

"Okay. You know what. Let's just get back there first, alright?" Seeing the darkening face, Alfred quickly suggested, changing the topic to something less violent prone.

The latter grunted in annoyance before giving in. Ordering Alfred to stand aside, He fished a piece of chalk out of his pocket and started drawing the transportation circle… It looked like an unnecessarily complicated circle to Alfred.

…Speaking of which, don't you actually need some magical stuff and extreme calculation to draw a working magic circle?

"There we go. All done." While Alfred was still thinking about that question, Arthur was already clapping chalk dust off his hand. Placing the gun in the middle of the circle, he stood outside the chalk zone and started chanting a long chain of spells.

Alfred on the other hand, silently watched as the white circle glowed. The inner ring started to rotate anti clock wise as the outer ring spun clock wise. The gun too started glowing and when it was so bright that all Alfred could see was the outline of the gun, it shattered into millions of gleaming specks.

The specks covered the center of the circle, and before Alfred knew it, a portal formed where the gun once rested.

"Come on. Our ride is here." Seeing this, Arthur snapped his fingers together and pointed at the portal on the ground.

The ground…

Ground…

Jump into the ground?!

"Nope! Not jumping in that!" Alfred shouted his disapproval almost immediately.

"Har?! Don't be unreasonable! Of course we're jumping in that! How else are we going to go back?" Arthur snapped, obviously shocked and annoyed at Alfred's reply.

"But we're jumping into a hole! Why would anyone in his right mind willingly jump into a hole?"

"Funny, I never thought you had a normal mind." Arthur's casual sarcasm rolled in. "In any case, that's a portal. Not a hole. Now jump in there obediently or I'll just kick you down."

"Are you kidding me. If I jump into that portal, it will probably take me straight to hell." Alfred wasn't planning to give in yet.

"With that loud mouth of yours, I won't be surprised if the hell shuts you out. Now stop being a brat and come on." Grunting, Arthur grabbed Alfred's hand and forcefully dragged him to the portal.

"Are you sure this will be fine? We won't end up falling into the sea again, will we?" With the earlier experience in mind, Alfred couldn't help but worry about where they're going to land this time.

"If you say another word. I'll personally make sure that you land in a graveyard." Arthur threatened with a dark smile. The latter gulped.

Alfred had absolutely no doubt that the guy in front of him would do such a thing…

He thought that Arthur would be a little nicer to him after all the things that happened... Maybe nothing's going to change after all, just like what Arthur had said.

…

Nothing at all?

"Well? Are you jumping or not." Beside him, Arthur was slowly losing his patience. "We're wasting precious time here-"

"Let's jump together then."

"Huh?"

"Ready…"

"Huh? What, what? Why are we-"

"Go!" Tightly holding on to Arthur's hand, Alfred leap for the portal, and as the two of them fell into it, smiled.

If nothing's going to change… Then at least let him hold his hand while he still can.

* * *

><p>It's been a few days since Romania last heard from England and America. He's almost beginning to think that those two were never going to come back when he got a call from Japan, informing him of a meeting at Canada's house.<p>

Of course, it was a meeting on how to hide the truth from other countries.

"We can't keep telling the others that they're sick, you know." Romania said, waving the cookie in his hand. "Germany is already getting suspicious."

They had told the others at the latest meeting that America and England called in sick. But some countries suggested that they visit the sick… which ended up with them sprouting more lies to cover up for things.

"I agree with Romania kun, perhaps we should come up with a better reason." Japan sat beside Romania, holding a cup of tea in his hands.

Canada sat opposite the two countries, petting the bear sitting in his lap as he thought of possible situations. Of course, the best one would be having England and America just fall out of the sky and get back to their work. But that didn't seem like it was going to happen any time soon.

"…Let's give them two more days." Canada finally replied. "The next world meeting is in two more days. If they don't make it back by then, we'll announce that they are missing in action."

"I support that." Romania immediately raised both his hands, one still holding a half-eaten cookie. He couldn't quite remember who he's agreeing to though…

"'I agree with you too.'…is what I would like to say. However, wouldn't that cause some commotion among the others?" Japan asked with a troubled expression.

"That's why we give them two more days to come back and prevent this mess." Giving Japan a pat on the shoulder, Romania replied with a smile. "In the worst case scenario, we can always say that they've eloped to a secret place or something."

He bet that it would be an even bigger news that saying that they've gone missing.

"P-please try to avoid that…" Canada smiled helplessly, feeling a drop of sweat down his forehead.

"It would be fun to watch, and teach America a good lesson for being so irresponsible." Romania shrugged.

Canada wondered if he should tell Romania that America probably wouldn't take that as a lesson at all…

"Very well then, it is settled. We shall tell the others about their disappearance should-" Japan was interrupted by the ringtone from Romania's phone.

"Uh. Sorry. I thought I turned it to silent." Nodding an apology at the other two, Romania took out his phone to see who the caller was. And as he did, he let out a gasp.

"Guys, erm. America's calling me right now."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Second last chapter. Definitely. I am so excited to write the last chapter you have no idea.  
>But you know, seeing that this big project is going to end soon, I'm actually a little scared and mostly sad.<br>I am probably not gonna be able to write another story with this much support you know. It's kind of depressing that it's gonna be over soon ^^"" _

_Anyway. We're 12 reviews to that blooper chapter, so let's give it a go, ya? _


	28. Don't take no for an answer

Credits to _Helizabeta_for her company/beta/random comments all over the place. honestly now if it wasn't for her I would have published this next week or something. Ohoho super long A/N in the next chapter~~~

PEOPLE I AM SO SORRY I ACTUALLY UPDATED THE WRONG CHAPTER OTL I AM SOOOO SORRY

* * *

><p><em>*I will start referring Alfred and Arthur as America and England in the middle of the chapter, please do not be confused.bows/*_

They made a wet landing after all.

"See this is exactly why jumping into a portal is a bad idea." Wiping the stale pool water from his face, Alfred started as he reached out to pull the struggling Brit up.

They had landed in the pool in Alfred's backyard, back in their timeslot at last. The pool was an Olympic sized pool and just about deep enough for Arthur to panic; he still hasn't convinced himself to take up swimming lessons yet.

Almost desperately holding on to Alfred's hand, Arthur poked his head out of the water eagerly and took a greedy breath of air. Gosh he thought he was going to drown in there. Surviving the ordeal of two bloody world wars just to drown in a stale and smelly pool… That would be downright lame.

"If it wasn't for some idiot who decided that it would be great to suddenly pull me down the portal with him," Arthur glared at Alfred as he whacked on the head with his free hand. "We would have landed on the grass patch. Unharmed."

And dry, for that matter.

"This still doesn't change the fact that the most vicious pirate of all time doesn't know how to swim." Alfred grinned and with that, purposely shook his arm, threatening to let Arthur go.

"The most vicious pirate of all time can still give you a good beating if you dare let go." Feeling his eye twitch, Arthur threatened, but instinctively tightened his grasp on Alfred's arm. Not taking any chances. Not today.

Alfred on the other hand, laughed.

The two continued their bickering as they climbed out of the pool, soaked from top to toe and smelling like a stale fish tank. A good bath could come really handy right now.

Running first into his house, Alfred came out with a towel on his head and tossed another one to Arthur. The latter dried his face and wrapped it around his neck.

"What do you suppose we do first?" Alfred asked as he sat down on a chair, looking up at the Brit.

"Get things settled of course." Giving the ignorant American a glare, Arthur took his phone out, only to find it drenched and obviously not functional. Stupid pool.

"I don't suppose you have a functional phone with you, do you?" Turning to Alfred with a sigh, he asked, feeling all the luck leaving him.

"Dude are you kidding me?" Alfred beamed and pointed back at his house. "I have a whole house here."

"Delightful, go get me the phone, we need to make some important calls-"

"But first." Grabbing Arthur's arm, Alfred started dragging the latter to his house. "Bath, dry clothes and lunch."

* * *

><p>"Guys, erm. America 's calling me right now." Romania held his phone up for the other two countries to see the caller ID. True enough, America's name was shown on the screen, along with his house number...<p>

House number?

"Perhaps the best thing to do now is to answer the call, Romania kun?" Japan suggested as the other nodded almost immediately, looking like he has just made a great realization.

Switching the phone to speaker mode, Romania pressed the answer button.

"Hello? Romania here." He said, half expecting America's energetic voice to burst his ear drums at any moment.

"Good day to you too, Romania." To his surprise, England's voice sounded at the other end of the line. Romania raised a brow as he glanced up at the other two countries, hoping for some sort of reaction.

Both Canada and Japan simply listened to the conversation quietly and nodded to Romania, motioning for him to continue.

"…Right." Romania turned his attention back to the phone; looked like he was going to do this alone. "England, before I ask you anything, I need to know if you've-"

"I am currently in America's house. The git messed the teleportation portal up so we ended up in his stinking pool." On the other end of the line, England scoffed.

"Wait. Wait wait wait." Romania raised his voice, getting England's attention. "America's house... In the memory or...?" Since England mentioned the portal, Romania was pretty sure that they've returned. But hey, it never hurts to double check.

"...We'll come and visit you soon. Could you do us a favour and inform Japan and Canada about this? America refuses to do anything else unless he gets his bloody cheese burger first." Romania could hear England sigh.

"Ahh, I wouldn't worry about that, they're right here with me. You two go ahead and have the day off, we'll... somehow settle things for ya." Romania paused to see if he's left anything out. "Oh and, please put all possible hazardous objects away from America."

Honestly now. It's America they're talking about. He can pretty much screw up anything. Wouldn't want any more trouble till the World meeting in two days.

"Right. But just for the record, I'm done being his baby sitter." England declared, followed by the sound of the toilet door closing in the background. "Well then, see you later."

With that, England hung up.

For a few moments, the room remained silent as the three countries digested what they've just heard. Then, as if planned, all three of them let out a sigh or relief.

It's finally over.

* * *

><p>America yawned as he trudged wearily to the conference room.<p>

After he and England had paid Romania, Japan and Canada a visit and settled everything, they went on separate paths to see to their own matters. He got a long talk from Canada about how irresponsible his actions were and it was, in his opinion, both boring and a waste of time.

That was the only thing that kept him busy though. He found himself going into random dazes for the rest of the day, wondering if everything's really going to go back to normal. As much as he didn't want to admit it, that trip of his did bring him closer to England.

He had somehow gotten a better grasp of England's past, worked alongside him, protected him from a gang of smugglers, spent some 'quality' time with him, and... well, watched him being hurt. He wouldn't call the trip a life changing one, but it definitely changed a lot of things.

He confessed to England... for one.

America could still recall the whole process clearly; it's hard to forget how nervous he was, trying to convey his feelings during the condition they were in. Of course, there was no way he could forget how relived and just... in love when England hugged back.

He thought that after that, after they've told each other the truth, they would be different... It's not that he's unsatisfied or anything. But England's acting like none of that ever happened, and that... well. that annoyed him.

"History can't be changed...huh?" Muttering to himself, America stopped in font of the conference room. The closed door looked bigger and heavier than usual. He just didn't want to admit it; he didn't want things to stay the same.

Life would be too boring without change...

* * *

><p>Romania sighed as he flipped through the files for the day's meeting. He had expected things to be interesting today since America and England had finally returned. Well... He expected a good creative explanation for their disappearance, but Germany just had to start the boring meeting immediately, ordering America and England to explain themselves after the meeting.<p>

And those two... Well...

Romania looked up from his file and glanced at the two. They were acting like any normal meetings, America suggesting ridiculous ideas and England basically disagreeing to everything he said. It's not bad, he supposed, but he had expected things to be a little different.

When he shouted for America not to change anything in the history, he did not mean this.

He sighed and turned his head back to the boring old files and paperwork; should have went ahead and go with the 'Elope' idea after all...

"Alright. That will be all for today. Everyone is submit a proposal on today's discussed topic." Germany's powerful and always seemingly angry voice echoed throughout the room, getting Romania to look up. Great. Meeting's finally over.

"Before the meeting's dismissed," Germany turned to America and England. "The two of you, please state what happened in the past two weeks and three days. Lies will not be tolerated."

Romania smiled to himself; this should be fun.

"Yes, about that." England stood up, straightening his tie. "It is with great regret that-"

"We went on a trip." America interrupted standing up with a bright grin and conveniently ignoring the shocked Brit beside him.

"A trip?" Germany raised his brow, finding things suspicious.

"Yes. As crazy as it sounds, we went on a trip that taught us many things." He smiled, "We've learnt more about each other, understood our problems, seen things from a different perspective, and well... We've learnt to be true to ourselves, even if it's just for a day." He turned to face England, who's pretty much all speechless and flushed.

This was not in the plan. England was sure that their original excuse did not include any of that.

"The trip has taught me lots of things, but there's two lessons that I want to share with all of you here. Lesson one: You cannot change the past." he turned to give Japan, Canada and Romania and three smiled and nodded back, Canada even gave him a fist pump for encouragement.

"Lesson two:" Turning back to face England, he offered his hand and looked right into the Brit's eyes. The latter was caught absolutely unprepared, but America knew better.

"The history may be complete, but the future is all ours to write." He smiled.

"So write it with me."

"..." England could no longer feel his brain functioning. Everything was not going according to plan, but everything felt so right. So perhaps, just for this once, he'll let his heart guide him.

Just for this once. No more excuses.

"By the way, I wont take no for an answer." America beamed.


	29. An Awkward Author

Osu! Hello guys! This is Kokoyuki speaking and if you're reading this, then I just want to give you a huge thanks.

Pandorax resurface is officially the first long chapter story that I have actually completed, and it wouldn't have happened without the support for you readers. So thank you so much for sticking to this silly and messy little story. /bows/

So erm... I promised some bloopers, don't worry, they will be included in this chapter. I would like to just say something first because the end of something is always emotional and great for useless speeches. Actually I have covered quite a lot of what i want to say to you guys in the April fool prank (the really late one), so yup...

I started this story because I wanted to use the title.

That's it. There was no planning, no plot bunnies, nothing. I literally just wrote something because I want to use this title. /laughs nervously/ But it turned out fine so I guess all's well.

From the very first chapter to this last one, I've received tons of support, and I enjoyed reading all your reviews with a foolish smile. I've made lots of friends because of this story too, and some of you guys actively replied back to me. Before I knew it, I made penpals on this site who literally had to tolerate me and my nonsense. /laughs/

So even though this story has officially ended, I hope that the friends I've made will stay, and you readers will continue to support me... If you want to, of course :)

I'm sorry this is my first time writing to address the end of a fic and I am just a ball of nervous mess because how do you do this? Is there like an instruction sheet for this or something oh my gosh I am doing a horrible job aren't I? Okay i will just stop talking sorry i am so awkward I promise if I ever complete a second story i will do a proper job at addressing the end.

JUST KNOW THAT I LOVE ALL OF YOU GUYS FOR YOUR SUPPORT BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT KEPT ME WRIT- ER. TYPING.

AND STAY AWESOME. YEAH.

Ok wait I am almost done, bear with me Q_Q

Special shout out to all the guest reviews! I don't know who you are and I can't reply to your review, but do know that I read and appreciate your comments as well!

FINALLY, IF THERE'S ANYONE HERE WHO GOT CONVINCED BY THIS STORY TO LIKE USUK (or like it even more) DO TELL ME QwQ IF THERE'S ENOUGH NUMBER WE CAN ORDER PIZZA OR SOMETHING. /bricked

Okay okay that's it. No more awkward talk. Moving on to the even more awkward bloopers.  
>Note that I was really highnot in the right mind when i wrote them, and some of them are extremely(slightly) suggestive. All of them are crack and don't make sense.

You've been warned.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Pandorax Resurface, Chapter 16<strong>_

"Oh, right. About that." Standing up, England took a step towards the bed and climbed on it, sitting right on top of Alfred.

The latter's face was already flushed, seeing how suggestive the position was. But he preferred not to go there.

"That's to make sure you're good and don't fight back." Smirking, England bent down and whispered beside Alfred's ear.

England's words did nothing except make Alfred's face even hotter, and he was getting entertained just seeing the git go all nervous over it

Laughing, he got off of Alfred and gave the moron a knock on the head. "You should have seen your face! What in the world did you think i was bloody talking about?"

_NOPE. NOPE NOPE NOPE ENGLAND YOU STOP IT RIGHT THERE THAT'S VERY OOC OF YOU THIS IS NOT EVEN IN THE SCRIPT. _

_-Beep-_

_**Chapter 18**_

Alfred woke to a peaceful morning; something that he had once taken for granted now felt so precious to him. After all the ordeal of chasing people with a gun and being chased by people with guns, he had came to the conclusion that life here won't be like the usual.

Not that he was complaining.

He's the hero for crying out loud, and what hero would sit on the sofa of a perfectly peaceful and calm living room in a perfectly fine world, living a perfectly norml life? No hero would do that. He's a man of action, not some gramps complaining about how his garden was ruined by some stray dog.

But even as a hero, he wasn't prepared for what's about to happen that day. In fact, he would rather the time be night so that he can fall back to the comforts of his bed and continue sleeping, pretending that everything was alright. Yea, that would be the best thing to do now, wouldn't it?

And that's exactly what he did.

_ALFRED SUMMON YOUR GUTS AND GET UP YOU CAN'T JUST SLEEP THROUGH A BLOODY CHAPTER OH MY GOSH BE A MAN ALREADY._

_-Beep- _

_**Chapter 19**_

"There's bloody chairs right over there, so get your fat arse off my fucking whale."

_NO ARTHUR YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A GENTLEMAN Q_Q _

_-Beep-_

**Chapter 19 again**

"Yeah but so many of them? You're a guy right? Or are you like those weird fish that change their gender as they age?" Alfred joked as he picked a random rabbit plushy out of the stack, amazed by the careful sewing.

"Are you trying to imply that I'm a fish or that I'm bisexual?" Arthur raised a brow as he frowned.

"Both." Alfred nodded, purposefully putting on a serious face.

"Fuck you."

"Gladly, but I top." He winked

_...For the last time can we just follow the script i can't work with sexual tension. By the way, the fish really exist! /bricked_

_-Beep-_

_**Chapter 26**_

"Do you want to… Um… Change first? Your clothes are still dripping wet you know."

He had no idea why that sounded so awkward, but he won't want to risk England getting a cold.

"…" Instead of replying, the ash blonde turned to face the American, and with an expressionless face, looked at Alfred from head to toe.

"W-what?" Okay this was getting more awkward by the moment why did he start learning to read the atmosphere now? What kind of joke was this?!

"You're wet too."

_I almost died laughing as I typed this okay. _

_-beep-_

**Chapter 27**

"Guys, erm. England's calling me right now." Romania held his phone up for the other two countries... who dropped on the ground and started laughing because what the hell am i typing. asdfghjkl;

_Don't judge me it's a lot of pressure ending a story okay. _

-End-

Exit to the right.

Please do not forget your belongings.

Please throw your food containers in the rubbish bins provided  
>Please do not throw anything at the writer (Even though you really want to)<p>

And  
>Please enjoy your day ahead.<p>

Well then, until next time guys! ^^

-Kokoyuki


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